Life, Death, and Between
by B3GIN
Summary: OC Centric. Rika Ono ruthlessly killed several comrades and betrayed the Leaf Village. These are the years of her life that ensue. Age: 17- N/A.  Rated M for detailed violence and language. No lemons, probably little to no romance.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Prelude to the Storm

Fire burned down from Konoha's sun to mix with a breeze.

The combination created a warm clear day, and several children laughed under the heat, playing and running as they often do. Each child ran alongside their shadows, wither unaware or unconcerned with its presence.

During days like this, it was easy to forget about the shadows. They emerged from places after long absences and watched over their owners; they provided backup to building by adding their dark area to the structures, and they gave cover to the weary. The shadows supervised children and saw the actions of everyone…

Including the white haired man that sat atop one of the village's buildings.

He was a man of many names, each matching him perfectly. Some knew him as the Legendary Sannin; others called him the Toad Sage…

One less flattering name was also dead-on: the Pervy Sage.

Ahead of him lay a telescope with a great vies of the women's bath house—only a true expert could have placed it in such a way. Beside him, a notebook waited. It was left blank. The words not put into writing, though, were clear on the man's face; all of them most prominent in his voyeuristic smile.

Apparently, observation had taken priority.

The man's actions could be considered vulgar to expected—the opinion varied depending on who was being questioned—but both of the figures approaching the man at the moment were of the 'he-is-lowering-himself' perspective.

They cam from behind, neither making a comment as to what he was doing. They said nothing, even after the Sage failed to acknowledge them during a long and uncomfortable silence. It wasn't until their condescending aura became unbearable that the Sage stopped ignoring them, and instead shooed them away and muttered something to himself.

"Jiraiya." One of the figures—an old woman—spoke first.

The Sage turned at the voice to glance at the duo, his face turning from one of careful composure to agitation.

He wasn't fond of the village elders, and had never opted to act as though he was. Sure, Jiraiya could be laid back and joke about their uptight behavior, but there were certain times when that wasn't an option. Some situations called for seriousness, and this seemed to be just such an occasion. As his eyes took in the Leaf Village's Councilors, a frown crept upon his features.

"What do you two want?" Jiraiya questioned. "I've already agreed to find Tsunade."

The two elders looked toward each other, exchanging a slight nod before the woman's partner pulled a large manila envelope from his sleeves.

"We though you might find this helpful." He held the packet of papers out to Jiraiya, and the Sage took it with careless obligation. When he felt how thick the packet was, Jiraiya scoffed.

"If these are Tsunade's bills, don't expect me to pay them." His tone was offhanded as he unraveled the string tying the envelope, but as he looked over the material inside the packet, Jiraiya's eyes changed. They reflected a form of true interest, curiosity and suspicion. "This is…"

He glanced over the papers to look at his seniors, and they held his gaze with rough resolve.

The Sage's eyes narrowed. Surely even the elders realized they had no right bringing up the past, didn't they?

_You've got to be kidding._

He sighed, deciding it was best not to make a fuss out of their shortcomings. If anything good could come out of this, Jiraiya would need to keep calm. After all, it wasn't very often that teachers received news of old students. Especially ones they had long lost track of…

However, when the student didn't want to be tracked and had even gone out of their way to _not_ be found, it made the subject a little more delicate.

Jiraiya's eyes scanned over the papers, picking out several slips of random information. It was a lot to go through, so he'd have to look at the rest later.

~ ~ ~ ~ ANBU Report Analysis ~ ~ ~ ~  
Gender: Female…—Height: 5' 2" / [NA]

Given Name: Rika…— Family Name: Ono

Eye Color: Brown…— Hair Color: Brown

Age: 14 / [17 (believed to be living)]

Jiraiya snorted at the report. The lack of intelligence they had on the girl, considering her age, was annoying. It was almost embarrassing to think that the Leaf Village was having such trouble with a seventeen year old.  
Almost.  
He glanced at the rest of the papers, giving grunts of disapproval or smirks according to what he read.

Affiliation: Konoha / [Unknown]

Rank: ANBU / [Missing Nin]

History: Formerly of Konohagakure and previous member of the ANBU Bla—Her school experience has shown her to be gifted in areas of hand-to-hand combat and strategie—As previously noted in the Bingo Book, she uses wind elemental type chakra and possesses the ability to summon—has not yet been determined whether or not she has mastered another elemental chakra—deemed mentally unstable and highly dangerous; take caution upon any encounters.

Jiraiya scanned over the girl's history with quick eyes, barely completing a sentence before moving onto the next. There was nothing in the report that concerned relationships with her former teachers, friends, family… nothing. Rika was no more than a daytime fairytale; she could have never existed and no one would notice. Or so the Sage thought.  
Whatever had occurred in Jiraiya's absence had been carefully concealed, and he made a quick mental note. He read on, hoping to find at least one helpful slip of information.

…  
Grad. Age: 10… —Chuunin Prom.: 12

Family: Megumi (Mother), Ide (Father), Tomoko (Brother), Michise (Sister)

Medical: Blood type A. Ide Ono's family has also had a history of—

Jiraiya looked away from the paper to keep himself from reading on, but a wave of despair ran its course through his memory, ripping at his conscience. Yes. He knew Rika's medical history well enough and he didn't need a reminder.

Every sensei learned the debilitating weaknesses of their students during training. Rika was no exception. She had received instruction previous to Jiraiya's intervention, but there were some things that could not be overcome through exercises and hard work. Surely she blamed Jiraiya for her failure. How could she not?

Some sort of guilt must have shown on the Sage's face, because the male elder perceived it and felt the need to correct the Sannin's feelings.

"You should keep an eye out for that woman, Jiraiya. We have had reports from anonymous sources saying that she has been spotted recently." Lord Homura turned more grave than usual before continuing. "To make matters worse, witnesses say that she disappears just as soon as they see her."

Jiraiya scowled. Was Rika now viewed so lowly that the elders wouldn't even speak her name? Was her very existence that revolting to them?

The female elder, Lady Koharu, continued the old man's remark. "Her behavior means she's obviously up to something. For now, we only have a vague idea on her motives. Since you are traveling with the Nine-Tails, you need to keep a lookout for—"

"Tch!" The old woman stopped speaking to stare at Jiraiya. It wasn't every day that someone showed such disrespect. "You don't need to tell me this. If you're worrying about her, then stop. I can handle this." Jiraiya turned the packet over in his hand to stare at the dated picture of the girl. A small sadness came over his features.

She had been thirteen at the time… The corners of her brown eyes slanted downward slightly, giving her face a deceivingly softer look, and her bangs conversed toward the center of her forehead. The remaining uncut bangs framed her face.

Jiraiya gave one tired sigh.

Looking at the picture now, it was hard to believe things had turned out the way they had. Most wouldn't have thought a girl like Rika would have left the village, and many more would have presented the fact that she was too weak to fend for herself.

But then again, those people didn't know the real Rika.

ANBU had already taken steps toward restraining her four years ago but, because Rika had been an active member, it was critical not to detain her completely.

Jiraiya slowly put the papers back in the envelope and sealed it again. When he was finished, he brought his eyes to the elders once more. "You know, no one's ever told me what she did to ruin her reputation. Care to explain?"

The elders exchanged a guarded glance with each other, swapping secrets in front of the Sannin. He remained patient, ready to wait however long it would take for them to talk. Then finally, after a minute of calmed silence, the old man decided to speak.  
"Jiraiya… I don't think you really want to know."

The Sage stared at the old man for a moment—someone passing by could have even called it a glare. However, Jiraiya was dealing with the village elders. There was no way he could show such contempt.

"Whatever. Maybe I'll ask her myself." The white haired Sage turned on his heel, preparing to leave, when a voice behind him spoke out.  
"Jiraiya. She—she threatened out lives."

The Sage stopped, and countered the old woman without looking back. "Are you sure you aren't just taking it too personally? I'm sure you get that sort of stuff all the time." Jiraiya knew he was playing it off too easily, but he still needed to stay calm if he wanted to know the details of his student's past. If he could just lull the elders into letting their guard down, they might spill some better information…

"Not only did she personally threaten us, she threatened the entire village. It is unacceptable."

This time Jiraiya turned around to look at the old woman. He cocked one eyebrow and reiterated, "What do you mean 'entire village'?"

The woman leaned back a little, happy that she had successfully reeled Jiraiya in. "You seem to think that your student is the victim, Jiraiya, but that's not so. After she killed our guards and came to us stained in their blood, do you know what she told us?"

Jiraiya said nothing; made no movement. He waited, just as he had always done with the elders.

"What she told us was… Well, in hindsight, that she would come back to the village one day. She said, 'I will kill everyone with extreme prejudice—I'll go after the woman and children directly if—' " The woman cut off, unintentionally shooting a panicked look to her partner. "Anyways, she started screaming at us after that. Right before she left, though, she said one last thing."

The old woman paused for a long while, and when Jiraiya started to fear she would never go on, he prodded for more details. "What was the one last thing?"

The woman cast her eyes downward, unwilling to speak, so the old man continued. "'After I'm done, we'll see how mighty the Leaf Village is without its future generation of ninja.' Those were her exact words."


	2. Chapter 2 Unaware

!**! SPOILER WARNING! If you haven't watched Shippuden, you probably want to stop reading this series now. ! SPOILER WARNING!**

**Also, please forgive the horrible format I had it in on the first upload. I thought I had worked out the kinks, but I suppose my novice experience with this website screwed me over. **

**Hopefully the chapters will get longer as I go along. I'm going to become more descriptive as Rika's character develops; right now I'm just afraid of spoiling everything… although I bet everyone's already figured out what kind of story this will be.**

**Thanks for reading! :D (And not flaming… yet)**

Chapter 2: Unaware

According to intelligence, the Kyuubi was 'attacked by Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki' a while ago. That meant I needed to be careful because the boy and Jiraiya would be on their guard. And that's not to mention the boss has limited information on Naruto since he isn't a main priority yet.

Truthfully, we're more interested in Sasuke. At least for now. The only problem's that Itachi has incapacitated him, so we need to take a hiatus. Why not do a little recon on what we'll have to deal with sooner or later?

The boy.

Naruto Uzumaki.

I looked down at my Bingo Book, checking for who knows what. Maybe I thought that if I stared at the marked picture long enough, it would change, or I'd find out I'd made a mistake, or that the kid in the photo wasn't a kid anymore.

I glanced between the boy, the picture of the boy's likeness, and back again. Nothing changed: the picture didn't, the boy didn't, and I still wasn't mistaken. I sighed and resumed observation.

Naruto has hair made of sunlight, and a smile just as bright. He looks just like any of the other genin from the Leaf Village; he was innocent, willing to please, insecure… Sure he wasn't showing the last trait, but it was obvious based on how hard he's training. The Jinchuuriki has something to prove, and he won't stop till he reaches his goal.

As I watched, I got the distinct feeling that I was forgetting something. The discomfort ran to the center of my core, nagging me until I gave in. His face reminded me of someone… A particular someone I didn't want to think about right now. My heart, however, had other wants. It picked away at my memory until it matched Naruto to the image that disturbed me, and flung the thought back at me. If possible, I grew even more still than I had been all day.

_How weird…_

This kid was stirring up memories, and I didn't know whether I should be angry or happy about it. But either way, that's irrelevant; I have to bring him his death.

What a pity.

If you ask me, he seems like a good kid.

Then again, you shouldn't ask me.

The target hasn't moved in a while. He's just lying at the base of a tree, trying to regain some of the chakra he was spewing off earlier.

There's no doubt this kid is the Kyuubi. He matches the physical description, and anyone else would be unconscious after wasting that much chakra—wait. Scratch that; anyone lower than ANBU level would be unconscious by now, and as far as intel goes, we know this kid is only a genin.

Several rubber balloons are sprawled out around him. I wonder what he's doing. He kept grabbing them and concentrating his chakra, but I was too far away to see what he was trying to accomplish.

Now I'm closer. Naruto seems too preoccupied to notice my presence, so my only threat is Master Jiraiya. If the Sannin comes, I'm screwed. There's too much that could go wrong if he notices me, and so much time would be wasted.

Although… I suppose I do owe him for making the Nine-Tails this tired. It gives me a chance to observe the kid without worrying about having my head torn off. Seriously, some of these demon hosts can get nasty. I'm surprised no one's lost an arm yet.

I looked back, just to make sure. Naruto was still on the ground.

The poor kid looked so peaceful, just resting there… And here I am plotting…

… … …

I guess it's hard for me not to feel for the kid when I know what Jiraiya is like. The Sage's never been a softie when it came to training.

I stood up, dusted myself off and sighed. Why am I reminiscing about the past anyway? I don't have time for it.

My boss isn't fun to deal with when missions aren't completed, and my mission was to go into town for Orochimaru. It was… fun.

That's done with now. The catch is that just as I was leaving to report back to base, I stumbled onto a higher priority goal; Naruto Uzumaki.

Now I have to keep an eye on the kid while avoiding Jiraiya.

My face dropped as I thought about my situation. They might as well have put a target on my head saying, "Old student, right here! Get 'er while the killing's good!" Add some neon lights and I might make a good emergency reflector. Not to mention, once Jiraiya's done with me, the ambulance might need a sign like that to find my corpse.

I sighed. I needed to calm down; this could still work out okay. All I had to do was formulate a plan that wouldn't make me frog-chow-a'la- Rika.

I stopped, thinking of a solution.

Could Master Jiraiya be my saving grace?

I could report to my creepy boss and be done with it. After that, even if he finds out I was by the Naruto, I could just tell him I didn't want to face Jiraiya alone.

_Hmmm_… That alibi has potential. I've got to remember it.

The sun's setting, and all the target's done is mess with the rubber balloons. I leaned against the tree I had been in all day and used its support to get up a little. Some of my blood rushed to my head, blacking out my vision, and… _Ouch._

My muscles ached from sitting still for so long, and my knee popped several times in complaint to moving. I swear I'm going to have joint problems when I get old if we don't start getting active soon. Basically all we've done up till now is gather information, recruit members, and look for new techniques to reach our goals.

That has required a lot of surveillance—I'm nearly an expert at blending in.

Two years in this group does that to you and the initiation gives you a heck of a workout if you don't already have a name for yourself; the latter being my case.

Maybe that's why no one knows I'm a member… Jiraiya hasn't seen me since I said goodbye four years ago, and I know he's the one who's been gathering information because of Orochimaru.

This brings me to a point: why I'm not wearing my uniform right now.

The outfit's a dead giveaway.

The boss probably thinks I'm ungrateful since I refuse to wear it, but he hasn't made too big of a deal about it. I'm the newest member, having been accepted only three weeks ago, so I don't blame him.

However, until we start seriously moving, I'm going to be as covert as possible. Right now, I'm a missing-nin wanted dead or alive for having information on Konoha. I'll be a deserter wanted dead or alive for information concerning _this _group later.

I stood out of my sore half-crouch and took one last glance at Naruto. He was standing directly in the light of the setting sun, and I was watching from the shadows.

I sometimes forget how nice it would be, standing where he is.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hiya! Chapta threeeeee~! Sorry it took so long to come out. (Not that anyone's been re/viewing the story. XD)**

**I made this chapter in a different style from the first two because I got a little self-conscious when I looked at other people's stories. Each of their chapters coulda eaten my first two for breakfast. :P And, seeing as I'm near OCD when I get interested in writing, it bothered me. So now it's fluffyyyy~**

**Please tell me if I should continue to write fluff into the story, or if it throws off the mood. This is my first attempt at fluff, and it probably sucks, so I would appreciate an honest opinion (and advice). Hope you enjoy Rika's story, and PLEASE tell me if she's getting either Sue-ish or Anti Sue-ish. I don't want either sues in her character design. :l Too bland for my liking… **

**Well, once again, hope you enjoy! :D**

**And btw, this story will be jam-packed with OCs. If you don't like them, I suggest you click off this page as quickly as you can.**

Chapter 3: Meeting—Jinchuriki and Rika

"BREAK ALREADY!"

I jumped at Naruto's sudden outburst and nearly fell off the branch I was on. The Jinchuriki hadn't spoken since Jiraiya had left him, and he had been silent all yesterday. Something was different about him today.

In response to the Jinchuriki's voice, a few birds took flight, scattering in random directions. Several of them flew straight at me—all feathers and panic—as if a demon was at their wings, and I was forced to dodge. I jumped from tree to tree, limb to limb, and eventually settled on a new branch. It wasn't that far from my old one, and more birds seemed to be avoiding it. I decided to stick with it and crouched as low as I could.

Sadly, it wasn't enough. A wing clipped by my left ear and I jerked my head away. _So annoying, _I growled to myself. Then I carefully started maneuvering toward the new tree's trunk, ducking under a few birds before I made it to the center. If the stupid birds couldn't fly around me when I was out in the open, I'd just have to put the trunk to my back. That way they'd fly straight into it if they got too close, and it would give them more incentive to navigate away from me.

After I successfully crammed myself into a crevice, I sighed. Even though there was a sharp twig jabbing me in the back, the trunk provided safety; I did my best to ignore it. It wasn't like I would be there forever—just long enough for the chaos to settle. So I stayed quiet and listened, perfectly content to wait. Until…

_*Shik* _

The smallest sound to the right caught my attention. I stiffened as it moved closer to me and took a kunai to my hand. _Great..._ Someone had seen me when the birds were flocking, and it was most likely another ninja. Who else would move that silently through the trees?

I slowed my breathing, cleared my mind, and waited. If it was an enemy ninja, then they would want to fight. Also, if they found out I was a rogue nin, things would get ugly. Very quickly… _Just fricking great. _I chanced a glance over to Naruto and scowled. Why was this becoming so annoying? This mission should have been easy.

_*Shik… Shik…*_

Whoever was watching me rustled the branch again, and I tightened my grip on my weapon. The noise was close by. Someone was just outside the crevice. But in my current position I had no way of knowing whether or not they had seen me…

I had to confirm what their ambition was. I needed to figure out their location. I had to find them. So, slowly—excruciatingly slowly—I peeked out from my hiding spot.

"Dammit!" Immediately, a pair of eyes shot up to meet mine. They were huge. They were black. They were staring right at me, never blinking, and they began to close what little space we had between us. _Not good. _I instinctively tried to put distance between us, but all that did was launch me back into the tree—hard. My heart pounded as I ricocheted off the trunk and realized I was cornered. My mind raced for a strategy, and I was about to act on the first thing that came to mind before I finally _saw_ my opponent.

_But that's… feel stupid now. _I let my hand fall to my side as the tension in my body deflated. My shoulders hunched over and I had to restrain myself from slamming my head into the tree. If I cracked my head open, maybe it would knock some sense into my brain. I mean, how pathetic was I?

I studied the gigantic bird in front of me—my supposed enemy—and pinched the bridge of my nose in exasperation. The longer I stared at it, the more I wanted to berate my skull. Sure, the thing was definitely threatening, but it wasn't an enemy ninja. It was a bird; a_**bird**_. The thing was about my size when I was crouching, and although it could have done some damage if it wanted to, I took a hit to my pride._ Jiraiya never would have let me live this down…_ I felt a smile tug at my lips, but the expression never came over my features because in order to have an _expression,_ you needed to have something to _express._

Instead of smiling, I mused over my nostalgia for a moment. And to clear things up: yes, I _did _kind of miss Jiraiya. But since I could never share a student-teacher relationship with him again, I never knew what was going on in his life. He turned into a fleeting instant of my life; a passing moment at best. I could suppress his memory without too much effort, and he didn't come into my thoughts often. But, of course, I would have thought about him more if I knew anything about him.

But I never would. The man was closed off and managed to fall off the map whenever he chose to. I didn't know if he was happy, or mad, or sad, or if he was still searching for his 'special student.' I didn't know about his new ideals, or if his mannerisms had changed. I didn't know if he had finally settled down with a woman or if he was still as perverted as he used to be.

And I didn't know if he thought of me—I didn't know if he _wanted _to think of me.

_*Shik*_

"_**Ah-hoo… Ah-hoo…" **_The huge bird watched me as I revisited memory lane, and brought me back from the past.

My brown eyes acknowledged the bird for a moment before they wandered over to the area Naruto Uzumaki was in. _That's right._ I needed to concentrate. Reminiscing wouldn't bring the old times back, and I stopped my train of thought there and slid back into statue mode. There would be less hurt, less thinking later on if I allowed the thoughts to pass, anyway. With a breath in and out, I cleared my mind of all distractions and concentrated on my mission. I tried to completely block the bird from my mind, but it scurried closer and forcibly grabbed my attention. When it was a hairsbreadth away, it turned to face the direction I was looking in—in Naruto's direction.

"Che." In response, I backed further down the branch and tried to spook it, but the bird just followed, stopped, and stared. "Stupid. What are you even looking at?" The bird of course didn't answer, and after unsuccessfully trying to shoo it away from me four more times, I gave up and settled for sharing my spot. The ruckus in the trees had finally quieted down as the rest of the birds registered that there was no threat, and in the following silence I looked back over to Naruto. _Phew. _Thank goodness he was focused on his training. I wasn't really sure how I would have handled the situation had he noticed me. Maybe I could have fallen out of the tree and said I was climbing? Would that have worked…?

My face fell. _Probably not._ The nine-tails' host was, after all, a Konoha ninja. He had some interrogation experience since he came from one of the most military sound ninja villages, and had most likely learned to live with a bit of caution. Also—genin or not—it was a horrible to underestimate the enemy. There was no way to be sure what he was capable of, and even in my case, village background meant nothing. It had been too long since I'd seen the training style the Leaf had taken up, and I wasn't sure what changes they'd made to the curriculum; judging the Jinchuriki by my personal school experiences was a bad idea. And it was frustrating.

I bristled silently at my enemy—at Naruto Uzumaki. That was all he was. He was the enemy and my target. His age didn't matter and he wasn't a child. The boy was a ninja, and he was willing to die. Anyone who wore a headband knew that because they were aware of the risks that came with it. Naruto had chosen to die the moment he took up the Leaf Village's headband, and therefore I hated him for it. He represented the prison I had once called home. He was one of the people I despised. I would kill Naruto Uzumaki for his ignorance.

_Now I'm getting worked up. _The key to a successful mission was to never let feelings get in the way; all shinobi were taught that. I closed my eyes and tried to take a deep, calming breath, but the relaxation technique had the opposite effect; my inner emotions scorched and killed the humanity in me. Something snapped. I automatically transitioned into a shinobi tool—a weapon of destruction completely devoid of sympathy—and it was out of my control. I could feel a burning hate growing within me as I opened my eyes and stared at the boy; the boy from my former village. I was infuriated… but I wasn't angry with _him._

Even as I glared at the leaf insignia on his forehead protector, I knew my emotions were skewed. The Jinchuriki wasn't the one I was angry with, and as I realized that, my shoulders fell. I hated the Leaf Village. I Hated it. But at the moment I was tired of being angry, of being on edge. It was true that it made me feel sick to see a Konoha ninja, and yet I almost felt… pity for the monster. Not because of the demon inside him, but because he didn't look well. Naruto hadn't moved very much all day. He stood in a finite space and hadn't moved from it. Earlier, I had assumed he was working with genjutsu, the illusionary techniques.

Genjutsu was difficult to master, and it would make sense for Naruto to remain still. It took years to train the mind and beginning students would scarcely move during training in order to concentrate. They focused on accurate chakra control, mind functions; and the training also helped them to learn patience. It was very possible that Jiraiya was teaching the boy genjutsu. Come to think of it, the Nine Tails was up against one of the master genjutsu wielders of the Leaf, Itachi Uchiha. Learning even the basics of the illusionary techniques would have been beneficial.

I struggled to make out what the boy was doing, and leaned forward a bit. My new branch gave me a better view even if I was uncomfortable being this close. (The closer I was to Naruto, the more chance I had of running into Jiraiya.) Another negative thing? My genjutsu theory was shattered. His body was too rigid and his chakra output was too sporadic to be training the mind. Whatever he was learning was all physical; it did _not _deal with the mind. Naruto was standing with both hands on either side of a rubber balloon like yesterday, and I could finally see what was wrong with him.

I frowned.

He was shaking uncontrollably, and it looked like he was in an excessive amount of pain: his hands gripped the balloon as though his life depended on it, his face was screwed up in anguish, and his arms shook. Despite his obvious discomfort, though, the boy continued to hold the balloon for about five more minutes until he collapsed onto the ground—again. This was the second time today.

I watched silently from my new perch, not even bothering to move. Going back to my former position now was rather pointless and would just waste energy. And besides, it really was easier to see from here. I could even tell the Kyuubi's breathing was labored as he lay and gasped for air. He then moved over to his side, clenching his eyes shut as if he thought if he couldn't see the balloon, the hurt would go away. _How naïve._

For the first time, I considered the boy's age. He looked around eleven or thirteen. The corner of my lip pulled up ever so slightly as I did the math. Take one or two years, and he could have been the same age as me when I was Jiraiya's wannabe student…

Oh, there go the memories again. I grabbed at my thoughts and violently reigned them in. Afterward, I distracted myself by monitoring Naruto with stricter eyes. The only problem was… _Shoot._ For some reason, I kept feeling bad for him!

I yawned, trying to create another distraction. Stalking the kid for the organization was getting to me. It had been a day since I last slept, and I'm pretty sure I once read that sleeping patterns affect behavior. Yeah, that's it. Those flashes of emotion were probably just bogus. I've killed many, _many _people. When Naruto Uzumaki is killed he will be no different than the others. Death is death—plain and simple. No one has complete control over it no matter what they think.

"Why…?"

I winced. The boy had completely changed my train of thought with one word, and even though Naruto was talking to himself, his question could have easily been turned on me. Why? Why _was_ I here? Why was I doing this?

Before I could ponder the thought too long, I let it flit past my mind. I may have been bored, yes, but I was not a masochist. There was no way I would purposely think of things that made me sad… Or at least… I don't think I would… Nope, definitely not. If that day ever comes, I'll lock myself in a room with Kiminari and chop off all my hair. There would be no better torture than that, would there? [Author's note: Kiminari will come up later.]

The boy shifted onto his back and brought his hands up in front of him. They were shivering like leaves in the trees, and the skin looked beaten up. He opened his bright blue eyes and a wind rustled past him, gently brushing over the clearing. It stirred the grass, lilting with invisible grace through the blades and made its way up. The breeze from his end ruffled through the clearing and toward me. It played with the branch I was sitting on, and that's when I realized the air was changing.

It was getting cooler—suffocating the heat—and I shivered slightly. An irrational fear rose in me as forewarning, but I was too proud to heed it. I looked down at my hands, mimicking Naruto, and bit my lip.

They were trembling, just like his.

_Screw it._

I bottled up my fear and scowled; I was fed up with caution. Where had it gotten me in all these years? Why should I take precautions? No one was around. Jiraiya was off doing who knows what, Naruto was exhausted, my boss didn't have anyone around here, and I doubt any other ninja would interfere with this area. For the most part, it was safe. So I acted on the notion and, in one fluid motion, I flipped backward out of the tree and onto the ground. The impact made a soft sound, but it wasn't anything major; even if I was closer to Naruto, he wouldn't have heard it. I smirked despite myself and tried not to giggle at my idiocy. This was a bad idea. Very bad.

I paused, trying to logically think through my impulse before I started walking in the boy's direction.

What I was about to do would probably come back to bite me later, but for some reason I couldn't help it; my legs moved on their own. Normally I had better control than this; I knew it. Though, I suppose that control had to slip at some point. A person can only be a murderer for so long, right? Humanity slips through everyone at random times. This time it just happened to run through me.

_What am I doing, what am I doing, what_ _am I __**doing**_? The question raced through my mind like an alarm, screaming at me to turn around and forget whatever had compelled me to come this close. Naruto Uzumaki was a target and a ninja. He wasn't a normal kid that had a family with parents who would mourn over his death for years wondering what had happened to their son. He was all alone; just like any other person shunned by their home village.

I stood at the edge of the clearing that Naruto was in and shuddered. There was a crimson haze to the clearing that made my neck hairs stand on end, and I noted that it would be dark soon. The surrounding trees laced the clearing with shadows, and with any luck the boy might not see my features well.

But whether he did or not, there was no turning back now; even if my cover was still in tact. I wouldn't allow myself to pull out because I was too stubborn to back down. So, after putting on my best act, I smiled and walked over to Naruto nonchalantly. He was still sprawled out on the ground and didn't even seem to hear me approaching.

"Well, well, well…" Naruto's head finally sprang up to look around, but he was too late. I could have killed him five times already. He was a _genin _for crying out loud! He should have known better. As an afterthought, I acknowledged how the liquid crimson of his blood would have blended perfectly with the sun's rays. But…

…Oh, ew. Did I seriously just think that? _That was rather morbid. _I chased the thought out of my head and tried to refocus. It was rude to think of killing someone while you smiled at them—no matter what my colleagues said. I had my own views on how to do things and they would never change that.

Naruto stared at me from the ground with his head raised; he didn't even bother to get up completely. I wondered how he would have reacted had he just read my mind? Heh, he probably would have taken a kunai out. And I would have felt better if he had. If he put up a fight, my mind wouldn't harangue me with the guilt at harming an unarmed child.

"You mind telling me what a kid your age is doing out alone in the forest?" I cooed.

The boy's prominent blue eyes looked me over once, hesitant, before he decided to answer. I must not have been a threat by his standards, but he seemed suspicious.

It really was a shame this kid had no parents, though. Evil demon aside, he could have been considered almost pleasant. But that was by my standards. Naruto had been shut away from normal village life since he was a small child… I could still remember the cold stares and silences that had followed him around while living in Konoha. Although of course, back then I had been busy with plans and didn't pay much attention to one ostracized child. And by all accounts, I myself had been a child at that time, and wasn't matured enough to notice him.

"I'm training," he said matter-of-factly. He met my eyes and brought me back from my thoughts with a single facial expression I hadn't seen in a while; or at least, not used in the way he used it. To say the least, it caught me off guard.

The boy smiled.

_Whoa. _It was an expression he used while still laying down, but still. His attitude paralyzed me; I just stood there dumbfounded like a moron. I couldn't remember the last time I was met with a real smile. People generally didn't give a crap about rogue ninja, and if they did, it certainly was not enough to show any emotion to them. (Other than rage, fear, distrust, or disgust.) It wasn't until Naruto spoke again that I snapped out of it, and by that time he had begun to rest his head back onto the cool Earth's ground. But before he completely relaxed, he popped into a sitting position like someone had electrocuted him.

"Hey, wait a minute! Who are you calling a 'kid'!" Naruto yelled.

_He seems a little slow. _I smiled gently, trying to warm up. If I was going to talk to Naruto, I would have to call up a few of the social skills I had abandoned. "Heh, sorry. I didn't mean to offend you, but anyone younger than me is a kid. Also…" I smirked, trying to egg him on. "You look pretty young to me, so I won't take it back."

"I'm not a child!" Naruto fell onto his back again and crossed his arms.

I continued to smile, though it felt like my lips were twitching at the sides. Ugh. This was harder than I thought. I mean, he was trying to argue with me when he'd barely even moved! This was _not _the reaction I was used to, but Naruto was probably only treating me normally because he didn't know I was a ninja. My bangs hid my headband fairly well; the scratch through the Leaf insignia was completely hidden. He may have thought I had a ribbon tied around my head for all I knew, and the lighting didn't help.

I was about to comment on his last statement, but the blonde boy was onto another topic already and he probably wasn't aware of our lack of intimidation toward each other. He was looking me over like he wanted to ask something. "So…" He trailed.

I waited, but he didn't go on. "Yes?"

"Humph." Naruto turned away from me to try and seem uninterested. "What's a girl _your_ age doing out in the woods alone?"

His voice was laced with sarcasm, and I laughed at his question—it was sort of funny, considering his situation. I may not be the strongest person in our group, but I wasn't a pansy. I could take care of myself better than this genin ever could.

_I have to calm down. _ Pushing my cruelty aside, I smiled at the boy and laced my hands behind my back. "Nothing much. I came up here to watch the sunset and noticed you on the ground. I just came over to make sure you were okay."

Naruto took my lie easily enough, and for some odd reason a light blush touched his cheeks. That caught me by surprise, too… But I guess younger kids get embarrassed when an older person comes to check up on them.

Naruto puffed out his cheeks like I had just told a bad joke. "Pfft! This training isn't enough to kill me! I'm strong—see?" The Kyuubi was still lying on the ground—must have been pretty comfortable because he remained there our whole conversation—and looked around for something. His blue eyes locked onto the rubber balloon he had been holding before and he smirked. I watched as Naruto tried to pick it up, but dropped my gaze when the ball returned to its former position on the ground.

The moment Naruto had wrapped his hand around the balloon, he winced and released his grip with a hiss of pain. It fell back, and he finally sat up, staring at his quivering hands.

Behind me I held my own hands tighter, as if to hide them.

The boy continued to scowl at his weakened hands, clearly hating that the pain was slowing his progress. I felt sad for some reason, so I walked over to him and sat down. "Kid," He looked up, remembering that I was there, and looked away as though he was ashamed. I didn't ask him to meet my eyes when I spoke. "You're a ninja, aren't you?" My voice was a bit harsher and more serious than I had meant it to be, but Naruto nodded nonetheless. I sighed, trying to calm myself, and held my hand out to him—palm up.

He stared at it, confused, before I explained. "Give me your hand."

Again his big blues watched me, but he cooperated willingly, if not somewhat reluctantly. Naruto stuck his right hand out to me and looked away for the second time. I noticed the slightly hurt look he had on his face, and tried my best not to fake too much concerned. Even if I was supposed to play the sympathetic stranger, it would be odd if I was overly worried.

But in a weird sort of way, I wasn't entirely pretending. Jiraiya must have just scolded Naruto if he was this shy. All the reports mentioned that Naruto was loud, outgoing, and stubborn. Yet right then he seemed timid, frustrated.

_I don't know what Jiraiya said, but it was probably more inconsiderate than he intended._

I bit the inside of my cheek and stopped thinking about the Sage long enough to concentrate on Naruto's injured hand. Sure, I wasn't a super medic ninja like some others, but I figured I could at least help with Naruto's discomfort. He would still need to rest for a few days to completely recover from whatever amount of energy he had lost, though. All I could speed up was the healing process in his hands, and the area that seemed to have suffered the most damage was his palm. I focused there and sent five small chakra waves up my fingers and to his nerves.

"Ah!" The Kyuubi jumped slightly at my chakra and turned his gaze back on me. "Wait, what are you—?" Naruto stopped speaking abruptly as he realized my chakra didn't hurt, and the skin on his hands began to heal itself before his eyes. The boy's face lit up slightly, so I assumed the pain wasn't as bad anymore. He watched, looking mesmerized, and my brow furrowed slightly. Whatever training he was doing, it really was difficult. Naruto had managed to burn himself with his own chakra, and he had even started damaging the system itself.

_What the hell is Jiraiya teaching him?_

I looked up to Naruto with more skepticism on my face than I meant to have, and he reacted. "What?" He asked, panicking slightly. "Is something wrong?"

I shook my head, but didn't answer. This was disturbing.

Whatever this new jutsu was, it seemed extremely powerful, and what made the situation worse was I couldn't determine what kind of area it specialized in. Was the boy concentrating chakra in his hands to use as a combat weapon? What was the destructive power if it harmed even the ninja who utilized it? What element did it embody? Did he possess a kekkei genkai? Was the technique long or short range? _This can't be good._

A few moments later, I put the boy's hand down gently and silently motioned for his other hand. As expected, when he held his left hand out to me, it had sustained strain to the same degree as his right. It was burned; the system was attacking itself…

_Stupid kid. What was he thinking?_ I felt my frown deepen, but I didn't bother hiding it because I couldn't seem to hide it for long. Plus, I couldn't put on an apathetic face. It would be uncharacteristic, and a content face would look too strained and fake. Hopefully Naruto would just mistake my frown for concentration.

"Can I ask you a question?" Naruto's voice was quiet, contemplative. He watched the hand I was working on and refused to meet my eyes. _Darn it._ I resisted the urge to glower at him and say 'no,' figuring that wasn't the best course. Naruto was using manners, which sucked. He would ask questions about me because it was the proper thing to do, and it was common courtesy to direct questions that revolved around the other conversationalist; that being me.

Naruto fiddled with a blade of grass by his healed hand, clearly as confused on the outside as I was on the inside.

I could only nod tersely. "You just did, but yes."

"How do you… How do you know how to heal me? Are you a medical ninja or something?" Naruto brought his gaze up to me as he finished his question, and I could tell he was searching for any lie I might make up. He searched my face closely—too close. It would be a miracle if he hadn't noticed my headband, so I assumed he had. Although, he still wouldn't have been able to make out which village I belonged to, but I decided to stick with the truth nonetheless.

"I'm not a medic ninja. Far from it, actually." I smiled, recalling my former training. "Back when I was a in school, I was the worst in my class when it came to healing jutsu. I guess…" I searched for the right words, and finally figured out how to say them. "I guess I've just had a lot of first hand experience with this sort of thing, and learned out of necessity." _That was good. Long enough to be truthful, but short enough to keep him in the dark._

Naruto gave me a queer sort of look as he mulled over my words and repeated me. " 'First _hand _experience'?"

"No pun intended."

He smiled then, but waited a little while before asking his next question. I couldn't tell if he had paused to think of my answer, if he was thinking of how to word his own question, or if he actually was just slow. He opened his mouth, but closed it with a contemplative look on his features.

He was trying to not offend me. "So… did you used to be bad at it, and you trained and got better… or is it still hard for you?"

I laughed, and it was real.

The Kyuubi was surprisingly easy to get along with, and even though I hated the Leaf Village, he made me remember the few things I had once liked about it. His smile, his easy speech, how willing he was to trust. It was all melancholic in a way, and I ended up pushing old memories to the past again.

As I finished with the last smashed up nerve on his hand, I responded, "I still have trouble. The only thing I can heal is hands, and even that's limited."

Naruto nodded and examined my work. "Well either way, I owe you one. Thanks." He made a fist, testing his range and the tenderness of the flesh. When it didn't seem to cause him pain, he smiled, and I sat up and started walking away. I had only come over to him because of impulse, and it was time for me to start using reason again. The Kyuubi tried to get up and follow, but his body was still exhausted. He only managed to collapse again. The notion was sweet, though.

I turned around quietly, looking him straight in the eye. My mind had become clear, and with that clarity came my somewhat sharp tongue. "Don't strain yourself. I only healed your hands." _Ah crap, I did it again. I need to stop doing that. _My tone was darker than I meant it to be. So to lighten the mood, I smiled slightly. "Oh well. I suppose we'll run into each other some time later on, so I'll see you later."

I turned, moving towards the trees, when suddenly… "Wait Lady!" I stopped, complying with the boy's request, but not turning to meet his whirlpool blue eyes. "You never introduced yourself—what's your name?" Naruto sounded annoyingly interested in the subject, and I didn't want him to think of me as some mysterious stranger he had to blab about to Jiraiya. However... I had been hoping he wouldn't ask that.

I stood with my back to him as a slight wind crept up between us and fiddled with my hair. Once it had passed, I continued walking.

"It's Rika." There really wasn't any point in lying to him now, especially since I'd already let people see me. Konoha would have figured out by now that I was doing something, and that was how it should be. Exactly as planned. And no matter how much it inconvenienced me, I would stick to the plan diligently; although I could always deviate, even just a little.

A smirk swept across my lips, and I brought my hand up in farewell. "It was nice meeting you."

I took off into the trees, then, and was out of his sight.

_Naruto Uzumaki…_

He had a lot of potential, and could become an extraordinary ninja some day. If things didn't work out with Sasuke, we might need to remember him.


	4. Chapter 4 An Unfair Fight

**Updates for this will not be scheduled well at all. Maybe once a month. At most and if things go well. :( But I'd like to thank the people who have either added me to the different favs or watch lists. Thank you so much! It made me really happy to see those. And deeb123456789, thank you for the review. [Sorry I have to respond like this] The insufficient amount of information I've given on Rika is probably annoying, but I promise she will reveal who she's working for in the next chapter. Again, thank you very much for the review. :)**

**I really dislike this chapter, but it'll explain a little about Rika's past. By the way, I love symbolism. So you may want to keep a lookout for that sort of thing. ;)**

**And one last thing: it may be stupid, but I'll be changing perspectives in an odd way. Because I personally get confused if a POV changes and the character still refers to themselves in the first person as "I" or "me," other perspectives will be written in third person omniscient. Only Rika's will be in first person. When the change is made, I will make sure to keep either a whole chapter in first or third person; I will not be mixing the two. (Heads up for the next chapter!)**

_**I do not, cannot, will not, EVER own Naruto.**_** It rightfully belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. For good reason. **

**And now, without further ado, please enjoy.**

Chapter 4: An Unfair Fight

I took a break from the weirdness of stalking Naruto today and did some recon. I explored buildings, looked into businesses, checked criminal records, and monitored security in the town Jiraiya was at.

All these things I did in a vain attempt to figure out what reason Jiraiya had for coming here.

Basically, there wasn't much by means of ninja business, and information concerning dangerous groups was hard to come by in a tourist town. Not much stood out. There had been a few disappearances lately, but did that actually matter? All large towns had missing-person reports since people were always moving, leaving, and coming in. Now, Konoha did some pointless things, but they would never send a Sanin on such a needless errand. And even if they did, this mission would put Jiraiya in unnecessary danger. He'd have to speak with locals who may or may not be involved with the kidnappers, and if he went up to one of them it would be obvious that he was a snooping. Either the job was larger than it looked or the village elders were losing their minds; personally, I leaned toward the latter thought. But that still didn't give _good _reason as to whyhe was here.

Training obviously couldn't be the reason for his choice. Naruto was teaching himself—alone—in the forest. Concentration wasn't the reason, either. There was no way the Sage could focus here. The women, drinks, food, women, lights, and womenwould draw his attention much faster than Naruto ever could. It was in Jiraiya's nature to be drawn to ladies like a starving animal to food—and with the way he panted at times, I couldn't put that simile past him. But still, as fickle as Master Jiraiya was sometimes, he wouldn't go out of his way for all this nonsense. This was a mission; it had to be. _So what are you doing here, Sensei?_ I wondered.

It was late in the evening, and as I walked through town the crowd began to trickle down. Families began to leave the streets unless they were in large groups and the late night shops opened as daytime ones shut down. I observed them as I walked on the side of the street, underneath the wooden canopy of shack. The terrible condition of the building left the ceiling above me filled with holes where termites had come in; some spots only had support beams left. In some places, the shadows of the beams barred across my face. Like the gate of a prison cell. Above, a crimson sun descended from the sky. Its blood-red rays also touched my face through the old wooden canopy. I watched the bloody sun slide lower and lower toward the horizon before I dropped my gaze and felt my chest tighten. Out of fear? Maybe.

It would be night soon, and my confidence was forced down with the sun. Twelve hours of reconnaissance had amounted to basically nothing. Not to mention the darker it got, the more overwhelming the darkness became—so overwhelming that it suffocated even the shadows. Something moved in my peripheral vision, and I turned to see a small boy dart out of an alley. He went into a shop nearby without looking at anyone on the streets, as though he were used to all the tourists. I let go of a breath, willing myself to calm down. I needed to stay on guard. Every shred of light would disappear soon and it would only become more and more difficult to spot Jiraiya. That gave him an advantage, and me a disability I couldn't afford.

Especially since the chances of meeting him went up at night. I wasn't ready to fight him. Not now.

My skin bristled, and my fists clenched. I found myself glancing around at my surroundings out of pure paranoia to make sure no one had taken an interest in me, even though I knew full well it was doubtful. With all the commotion and movement, they had more things to worry about. But I needed conformation. As a self-inflicted rule, I always needed to be aware of my situation—my metaphorical footing. That way, if the ground that I stood on was weak; I could adjust.

The traffic picked up again as the late night crowd moved in. They drifted by lazily, looking around to take in the sites that they couldn't possibly see in the dark. I guessed a few of them were already drunk and were just pointing at random areas. There was a group of people here, a larger family there, but no one was paying attention to the strangers they passed. They were too preoccupied with their own thoughts—who could be bothered with such novelty things as other living, breathing human beings? But I wasn't complaining about how fickle they were. I was actually thankful for it. Being inconspicuous made things so much easier! And only a few lower-ranked ninja were monitoring the crowd. This town was booming; the perfect place for someone to lose track of someone or hide. I had been overlooked my entire life—which had caused my previous Konoha instructors grief—and places like this had never been much help with that. When I had lived in the village, I could sneak out of class when needed and run top-secret recon missions for the ANBU, while also keeping my ninja life a secret from regular villagers.

My skill had made me important to ANBU.

_No, that's not right. _My eyes narrowed as I corrected myself. I had been important to them, but never so important that my life was ever truly valued. The ANBU would have readily thrown my life away had a mission called for it. Every member was a sacrifice to the higher ups; bags of meat that could be tossed out of the organization at any time.

And yet I was lucky, because being important was more than I could say for the others. I'd been able to get out of a lot of tough situations throughout the years. I'd realized early on in my ANBU career that it was always the top-notch and flashy ninjas who were killed quickly. They had too much confidence in themselves and were never cautious. By observing their deaths, I learned not to stand out. I was only breathing today because I was too boring to notice by the enemy. Only a few people ever found interest in me. They were the exceptions and they were few in number, but they always saw me no matter what. It was just a pity that Jiraiya, one of those few, was in this town.

_Calm. I need to be calm. _Freaking out over Jiraiya wouldn't help me any. It would only cloud my mind. I made my fists unclench at my sides, but that was it. Shit happened to people that relaxed and if ANBU had taught me anything, it was to be ever-vigilant, ever ready. We were required to take in our surroundings. We were told to use teammates, communication devices, and the environment to look around us. Not our eyes. It wasn't like we couldglance over our shoulder at every step (an obvious rule, yes, but new members didn't get it very often). Deaths were commonplace in the agency. Whenever a novice member made the lethal and infamous mistake of being conspicuous, we received a simple speech: _"Never look over your shoulder; the gesture suggests anxiety and sparks suspicion. It gets you killed, so try not to be stupid. You are dismissed." _

The words echoed in the back of my mind with painful clarity. They were the only words ever given at the funerals—never any kind words for the deceased, never any tears. The approach to the subject was cruel, but I suppose that the heartless, detached method the Leaf used on us worked well. No one forgot the speech after they'd heard it; it haunted them. Many agents learned to hone one sense above all the others so they wouldn't depend on their eyes. They would train for hours, working diligently to better their chances of survival. My personal forte rested with my sense of hearing. Like myself, a few of these hardworking members were also important. Their dedication usually managed to make an impression on the higher ups, and kept them alive a bit longer.

Anyway, I'd have to track Jiraiya by ear and hope that, with any luck, I'd hear him before he saw me. And who knows? This might make things easier. Late night partying was one of Jiraiya's favorite pastimes while I trained with him. He used to get louder in volume the later it got. If he found a few ladies now and then, he would swoon to them and be less likely to spot me. It would be even better if he ended up finding a hustler's club. The man had a laugh that could shake a whole building. So it probably _would_ be easier to avoid Jiraiya at night… Even if the darkness spurred my paranoia.

I continued to keep a lookout for my former white-haired sensei and wove through the crowd as inconspicuously as possible. So far I hadn't seen or heard Jiraiya... But just to be sure, I glanced into a shop's window. I made sure not to stop walking. The reflection was pretty awful, but it was sufficient. I caught a glimpse of white mixed in with the lights of the shops, and the color looked amazingly similar to Jiraiya's hair. I scanned the glass' surface more closely out of the corner of my eye, searching for the other memorable colors he wore, before struggling to regain an unconcerned expression.

It wasn't Jiraiya.

I continued my walk, making sure not to spend too much time at the window. The quick-check had taken no more than two seconds, and hadn't drawn any suspicion as far as I could tell._ But is this a good or bad sign?_ Although Jiraiya's absence meant he hadn't noticed me, I also didn't know where _he_ was. The mission was as annoying as it was easy and consisted of:

1.) Keeping a low profile—simple.

2.) Avoiding Jiraiya—freaking hard. (He was the one who taught me infiltration in the first place!)

I'd made it about half a block before a voice lilted on the air nearby. The voice was low, calming. It didn't belong to Jiraiya, but for some reason I picked it up as though it held significance. "—Oh, honey, don't worry about the prize. You're always too kind to me…" The voice belonged to a young woman. She was standing next to a man about her age, looking up at him with tender eyes. Like she loved him. I couldn't seem to pull my eyes off the young couple.

Now, it wasn't so much the disgusting gushiness of her voice that had thrown me off, but the woman herself—And no. Before things start up, it wasn't for _that _reason. I'm as straight as my chest is flat—She and her husband were stopped by a game stand; he was looking rather put-off, but the lady was content. Her eyes reflected the smile on her lips, her left arm interlaced happily with the man's, and her other hand…

Her other hand rested on the bulge of her stomach. It was a maternal gesture, but she clearly had a mind to protect the child inside. Not from the man, of course, but her hand placement showed her unease with the crowd. It was probably her first child. _Looks like she'll become a good mother,_ I thought, nearly smiling. Then I stopped, completely shocked with myself. Where the hell had that thought come from? It was the most random thought I'd had since coming here, and there had been quite a few.

Suddenly, a cold flash ran up my spine. A small twinge of pain tugged at my heart and kept me from advancing, even though I willed myself to move forward. It felt like my side was being ripped open and I felt a memory trudging up. My hand gingerly touched the side of my torso, tracing what only I knew was hidden underneath my clothes. Through the fabric I could feel every contour on my skin. _So many memories keep popping up…_

_*Thwak* _Something grabbed me from behind, latching on tightly. The thing grabbed me back to reality from my momentary panic attack, making me aware once again. Instantly I turned on the thing, ready to take it out, and scolded myself. I knew better than to let my guard down like that! The past was the past, dammit! I got over it a long time ago! What was wrong with me? One baby and I turn into some spineless pile-of-crap-kunoichi? Hell no.

I rotated my whole body; the blade of my kunai sliced through the air nicely. Now it was close enough to hit my opposition. I could see my attacker. But by that time, I had halted the mad maneuver and stopped to stare at the thing clinging onto my waist. My eyes widened as I realized what I could have done, and my hand began to shake as I held the blade away from a small head. A child's head. The child was crying into my shirt, soaking the pale pink fabric.

"What the?"

The kid holding onto me looked up, his face streaming with tears. "Lady, I'm sorry. I'm sorry… I'm sorry…" He buried his head back into my shirt and continued repeating his apology. I raised an eyebrow. There was no reason for him to be apologizing, much less for this child to come up to me. So why? Something was wrong. This was too weird to be coincidence. I grimaced, becoming hyper alert of my surroundings, and spotted what I was looking for.

A woman on the corner of an alley was watching us with more interest than some other regular citizen would. She wore ordinary clothes designed to be unmemorable, and hid everything below her eyes with a rag. Opposite her, on the other side of the street, was another enemy dressed in a similar manner, but it was a man and he was pretending to check out a dango shop. I looked back to the kid and connected the dots. These guys were professionals. And whatever business they were pros at, it wasn't good.

_So much for my being unnoticeable._

My eyes narrowed as I placed my hand gently on the crying child's head. In the same instant, I used the kid's body as a blindspot to move my kunai out of their sight. There was a man approaching us from behind, seeming intent on just the child and me. If they wanted a fight, I was prepared. One slip up from this guy and I would slit his throat. A simple slash through the side should do it, but the only problem was that people were starting to notice the boy and me. He was crying, and although it was quiet, passersby normally couldn't ignore sad children. If I engaged the man here, everyone would panic and this mission would be a complete failure. Plus, at this point, I didn't even know if the child was in on this attack.

I had to stay in cover as a regular traveler. No fighting, no defending. Basically, I was being forced to comply with these men._ Dammit. _Oh well. They might just be thugs—thugs who'd had the misfortune to pick the wrong victim from the crowd._ Bring it on, boys. I need a little stress relief. _I crouched next to the boy and tried to act as sympathetic as I could.

"Hey, kid." I smiled, thinking out the best way to kill these three men without drawing too much attention. "What's wrong?" The kid's sob broke for a moment but he didn't look up. "It's okay; you can tell me."

The boy wiped his hands over his eyes to dapper the tears, but it did no good. His small shoulders were shaking. I ruffled his hair—something my sister had once done for me—and continued smiling. He looked up to me, sniffled a bit, and spoke. "I-I'm sorry. They told me to-to come up and distract you so that…" The child's dark brown eyes widened in terror as he saw the man coming from behind, and I struggled to regain his attention.

"Calm down for a moment." I said, fixing the child with a hard stare. "Now, before anything happens, I want you to tell me what these men told you. What did they say would happen if you didn't come up to me?"

That did it. The boy's lower lip quivered and his eyes welled up. I was afraid he was going to hide his face in my blouse again, but he composed himself long enough to lean in and tell me what I'd asked. It was gruesome. I frowned as he explained, and gradually grew angrier with the more I heard. When the boy was done speaking, I was sure he wasn't in on the attack and he once again grabbed hold of me to muffle his cries. I pulled away a little, amazed at how the simple explanation had broken him.

_I suppose he __**is **__only a kid…_I patted his back awkwardly, quietly shushing him and telling him it would be okay. Then, to my extreme annoyance, a young blonde woman peered over at us. She didn't seem much older than me; maybe four or five years. I estimated her to be around twenty-one or twenty-two before I stifled a growl. It wasn't her fault for being concerned, but at the moment I really didn't want to deal with her. She was keeping things from getting started. The man coming from behind wouldn't come up to us if there was a witness.

The lady stopped in the middle of the crowded street and smiled at us half-heartedly. The late-night crowd moved around her, shooting the three of us glares as though we had inconvenienced them. "Is everything okay? No problems, I hope." As she spoke, the shady man from behind stalled his approach by feigning interest in his shoe. He was an exquisite actor, really. Everyone around probably thought a strap on his sandal had broken.

I put on my own charade, acting like I didn't notice him and looked up, returning a smile to her. "No, we're fine. My younger brother here is just a little tired."

She nodded understanding and lingered a moment longer. I strained to keep my fake smile up and redirected my attention to the unknown boy next to me. I fiddled with his dirty hair and refused to look at her. Maybe if she thought I was busy with the kid, she'd leave me alone so I could concentrate on my opponent.

My plan didn't work. She continued to string together a conversation. "I see," she said. "He looks pretty young. Was today a bit long for him?"

I nodded dumbly, still not looking. How the hell was I supposed to know? I'd just met him!

"Do you two live here?"

I shook my head again, trying to be as curt as possible.

"Oh, well…uh…" The woman paused politely for a moment, probably hoping for me to give out more information. When I didn't, she squirmed and reluctantly carried on. "Well… there's an Inn just down the road if your parents haven't already booked a room… Eh—and the price isn't too high, either." She laughed nervously and scratched her cheek. Poor girl must have felt like an idiot.

I nodded again, at the same time feeling someone's knee ram into my back. _Looks like Shoe-Dude couldn't wait._ "I'll keep that in mind. Thank you." With a final, awkward smile the woman turned away. I dropped my eyes, deciding to ignore the back-kicker, and felt a bit guilty. It was true that there was no time to hold up a conversation with her, but the lady had only been trying to help. Perhaps I had been too concise. I should have handed her the child and asked her to take him to a safe place... But that would only put him in more danger. And then Shoe-Dude may have gone after him _and_ that woman.

I closed my eyes in order to think straight, and the man behind me knelt down. He wasn't examining his shoe this time, though.

"Hey," he purred. "Don't make a commotion and don't scream. If you do, it'll be the last thing you and this kid ever hear. You'll be dead on the spot." He breathed his threat as if it didn't faze him at all—which it probably didn't—and I resisted the urge to snort.

_Whatever, buddy. _It would take one jab to his temple and this guy would be down for the count. Killing him then and there would have been so simple, but _again _I also had to think about Jiraiya. Too much attention was never a good thing. And on top of that, I wasn't sure how many people were working with this man. He could have more than just the other two I had seen before, which would still be a disadvantage. I glanced at the boy to see how he was doing, and was slightly surprised.

He looked terrified. And sure, I hadn't expected him to look happy, but he looked so… completely, utterly frightened. He couldn't breathe properly, and his whole frame shook. His eyes, glassy from tears, were locked onto Shoe-Dude, and he had begun to hyperventilate. I stared at the kid for a moment, and compared his reaction to my own. I was breathing just fine, and the only thing shaking were my hands—but that was easily dismissed. And as far as I could tell, my eyes were only open as wide as I needed them to be. His reactions made me feel inhuman; why wasn't _I _reacting that way? Had I ever reacted that way? Maybe all my training had desensitized me. Was I going insane; apathetic? Or was I just getting cocky?

Eh, oh well. No point stressing over it. Whatever was wrong with me, I could worry about it later. The situation with the small boy was definitely going to turn into a fight, and I needed to concentrate. I needed to function just like a good weapon. Just like Konoha had taught me.

With one sharp nod, I looked at the man behind me. "Alright."

The guy laced his arm in mine, preparing to force me up. It was completely unnecessary since I had already made it clear that I would comply, but I played along anyway. He could have a small moment of victory for himself, and then we would be even later. I grabbed the child as I got jerked to my feet, and he latched onto my side like a newborn. I gave a tired sigh. He wouldn't have been able to move on his own—he was too frightened to. His whole body was still convulsing with shivers, too. I was surprised he didn't wriggle right out of my arms.

When we were out of the crowd's sight, the shoe-dude rudely shoved me into a moldy alley. The shadows quickly engulfed me like I was an old friend. I wasn't worried, but I still held the boy closer to me. Another figure appeared in the alley and stalked toward me as we got nearer. The enemy was now at four. The odds weren't good, and I didn't feel good. The new figure staggered forward slightly, revealing itself as a clumsy and drunken man.

"You got wun?" He squinted at the kid and me, and his face showed clear disappointment. "Aw, come awn. This ishn't fun, Zua. You didn't get no moore? It's one againsht four."

"Get over it, stupid," Zua hissed.

"But it's a unfair fight And it's uh girl!"

Shoe-dude, or Zua, paused for a moment and sniffed the air. "Have you been drinking?" My captor shot a death glare at his subordinate and tightened his grip on me out of anger.

_Bastard. _There would definitely be a bruise on my arm tomorrow, which meant I would need to cover it up. Stupid jerk. I frowned, not enjoying the extra work these guys were forcing me into. In fact, forget fairness. I had already given 'Zua' his shining moment when I came willingly, so he was in my debt now.

The slurring buffoon interrupted my thoughts. "Yes—er, nooo. I… haven't been drunking… nothing?"

"Shithead. You suck at lying." My arm was gripped even harder. "And it's supposed to be unfair. Now grab her." The man holding me continued to stare his retaliator into submission while the other men from earlier started their jobs. One took the small boy away from me, pulled a kunai out, and began pressing it close to the child's neck. The other snatched my free arm and helped Zua press me against a nearby wall. The slurring guy soon joined in.

"Lessee…" Zua said, looking me over. It was obvious he was supposed to be the leader. "Nice to meet ya. The name's Zua."

I rolled my eyes, having already caught onto that little detail. The woman and man from earlier were now behind Zua. They began sniggered like idiots and I ignored them. They weren't going to get my name if that's what they wanted. Zua seemed to seemed to get it first.

"I'll be your new employer," he deadpanned. When I didn't respond again, he shrugged off my glare and continued speaking as though it were routine. "I'm a kindly tea farmer who needs a few hands to help me out with my crops. I need healthy… 'employees'—" _Or slaves, _I thought, "—for the work I do. In short, that means you need to be able to lift your weight in tea leaves. Are you healthy, Girl?" He smirked at me the whole time he spoke, and when I remained silent he had the audacity to reach for me—probably getting ready to check just how healthy I was.

I grit my teeth together, now getting slightly irritated. He was misinterpreting this whole situation. When I shoved out of his way, he 'tsked' and rolled his eyes toward the small boy being held at knife-point. "She doesn't have much of a figure, boy. She's a scrawny thing; probably couldn't even lift _one _tea bag. Do you really expect me to let your brother go for _this_? Even if he's getting sick, he's better than this girl would be."

I snapped to attention at his words. _That means… _What the child had told me was true.

The man turned back to me.

"What's your problem?" Zua pushed his face closer to mine, trying to discomfort me, and I head-butted him without hesitation. I had my forehead protector on, so I was fine. He, on the other hand, pulled back with a bleeding forehead and an oncoming headache.

"You little!" The guy turned red and, for the first time thus far, I believed we were on the same level of agitation. He attempted to slap my cheek, but I bowed my head and his clumsy hand hit the woman holding my left arm. After that, they both got pretty mad and the newly red cheeked slobette pulled my hair, forcing my head up.

"You're going to pay for that, you freakin'—"

"Wait, Tsutara." Zua said.

The woman stopped immediately and looked at her boss. Zua had a cocky smile on his face that made me angrier. "Maybe she's a little sparky, but some of the farmers in my area like that. Now I'm not normally a trafficker, Girl, but with you I might make an exception." I stared at him and he mistook it for shock. His stupid grin got wider. "Now, don't try that again or you're dead." He started moving his fingers under the edge of my shirt. "This is just an examination. Cooperate and…" He stopped.

The guy had brushed his hand against the bare skin of my stomach before lifting my shirt about two inches. It wasn't enough to show my whole abdomen, but the guy on my other side gasped. The woman—Tsutara—stared at my exposed skin in horror. She probably wasn't used to seeing battle wounds, least of all on another woman.

I slowly let out a breath, trying to calm down as they stared at the scar that stretched across my flesh. I knew it was bad even after the years it had had to heal. It was festering and reddish. All of the new skin that made up the scar was discolored and contrasted sickly against the unharmed areas on my body. Their inspection took no less than five seconds, but the looks I'd received because of it damaged my pride for years. It made it worse to have them stare at it.

I made sure my breath was steady as the shirt was pulled back down to its rightful position. The thug leader spoke to me and I opened my eyes again. He had gotten closer to my face and I could smell his unwashed teeth.

"I guess in this Shinobi world, you've gotta be tough to survive." He smirked, trying to intimidate me again while I just stood there, considering over his words.

It wasn't a pretty speech, and he was no orator, but I paused to give his words a little thought. I tried looking at his perspective in several different ways to give him a little slack; I honestly did. It was merely odd to have him say that to me. Obviously he knew I was trained because of the Leaf headband on my forehead, so he assumed I had received the scar during a mission. And he was fairly correct that the Shinobi world was difficult to survive in, but something about his words just wouldn't settle with me. I couldn't let it go.

The man waited for my response, but I couldn't speak. Whether he wanted me to react with anger, agreement, or fear, I didn't know. Never will. However, when I could no longer take his incompetence, I smirked back at the man with the most bloodthirsty, sadistic grin I could. My bangs fell close to my eyes and, in that dark alley, I can only imagine what I looked like.

"Oh yeah. Because I bet _you've_ had it hard. It must be really difficult to blackmail some little kid."

Before he could open his mouth, I kneed him in his upper thigh near his manhood and redirected his retaliating punch to my left. When he leaned into the punch, I pulled on the front of his shirt and his forearm. The force caused his head to collide with the wall behind me and I jumped onto his back. The lackeys on either side of their leader hesitated, trying to figure out what happened, and I kicked in their faces. It was like a mid-air split that gave me a good grip on their jaws.

While the two men and woman stumbled, I used the kunai I had hidden and threw it at the guy who was holding onto the small boy. He dropped the child as soon as the knife bit into his hand and didn't make any attempts to come near me or the boy again. He dropped to his knees and held his hand like a wounded animal, whimpering at the pain.

My attention came back to his three stumbling cohorts behind me. It was pathetic, really. A few kicks and they lost all their senses. _Useless,_ I thought before kicking the closest guy on my right. The leader and his two thugs were all clumped together so when I kicked one into the other, it created a domino effect. They knocked themselves into another clump just long enough for me to kick them into the wall as a collected blob. They made a satisfying smack on contact.

I smiled, dodging their wobbly bodies as they struggled to stay up. Although eventually they went down one by one, and stayed on the ground. I made my way toward the boy as they fell.

He was looking around, confused, but came toward me after a little hesitation. His brown eyes were huge, and looked ready to spill tears again. But I didn't notice. I was too busy watching the goons. One of them may have still had the guts to get up for another round because even low-lives sometimes had surprises up their sleeves, and it would have been too embarrassing if they gave me another reminder to go along with my bruise.

Plus, it wasn't like I needed to keep a close lookout on the boy to know where he was. My ears registered every one of his footsteps as he staggered over to me, still slightly dazed. He definitely was _not _a ninja. When he came over and hugged me, it was only slightly unexpected. What caught me off guard was the gratitude.

"Ma'am?" The boy had buried his face into my shirt, and I suspected he would start crying. But when he looked up he was smiling a child's smile; an innocent smile. "Thank you so much."

I watched him for a second, making sure to keep my face unreadable. It was too weird. Even I wasn't sure how I felt to have someone thanking me; it had been so long and yet this was the second time in two days. Once from Naruto, once from this child. They didn't even know what kind of person I was. I mean, I was planning to kill one of them! Stupid kids, being so trustworthy. They should know better.

The boy watched me, mistook my apathy for anger, and his smile faltered for a moment. _Oh shoot. _I panicked, fearing that he would start crying again. There were only so many tears I could take, and if he started wailing, people might come running. I quickly crouched and patted him gently on the head to keep that from happening. "You did great, kid. But you should go home now. I'll finish up here." I smiled, trying to reassure the boy, and practically threw him out of the alley and into the town. Just like that, he was out of my life forever. One problem gone.

"Dammit…" A voice behind me groaned.

I brought my focus back to the makeshift leader as he tried to get up from the ground. When he collapsed because of my previous kick to his leg, I walked over and decided to help him up. By grabbing the collar of his shirt. "Now..." I looked the man straight in the eyes and brought him back to his good friend the Wall. He huffed as the air was smashed out of his lungs and his face scrunched up in pain. "I think you have someone that's important to that little boy."

"Bitch!"

The guy spit at me and I punched him in the face. He was really pissing me off. If he didn't stop soon, I would seriously injure him. After all, I'd given him a courtesy warning already. Not for his sake, but for the child. "Listen to me now," I hissed, "and if you try that again I rip out your tongue." He closed his mouth immediately, but kept glowering. I let it slide since he was at least trying. But I was still irritated. "In the time it takes you to draw a single breath, I could kill you. There is a public-affairs ninja just beyond the alley, and that's why you're still ali—" I cut off, noticing he looked like he was about to yell. "—No, no. Don't bother screaming. Remember," I held up my index finger, "one breath. You wouldn't have enough time to call out for help. Are we understood?"

The man nodded with a bit of reluctance and I nodded in appreciation. It must have been hard for him to take orders from someone else.

"Good boy. Now, in order for you to stay alive for tomorrow, I want you to give that boy his brother back and stop blackmailing his family." The man started sassing me, and my palm pressed against the man's windpipe. I continued speaking only after I had his attention. "And by the way, if I hear about you doing anything like this again, I'll find you and tear off your leg. Then I'll place a paper bomb in your skull and..." I trailed off, thinking it was better to let him use his imagination. "Well, you can guess from there."

I gave him a stern look, and somehow the man knew I wasn't kidding. This time Zua gave me several nods of understanding. I allowed him to slouch back to the ground and patted him on the head before knocking him unconscious. It was nice of him to give up easily. All things considered, everything had gone off without much of a hitch. The alley lacked the signs of a fight since there were no scuff marks or cracked walls.

The only problem would be the bloodstain from the man I threw my kunai at. He was still conscious, still shivering and staring at me with terror. When I came closer, he threw his hands in front of his face and closed his eyes. I thought of someone having a bad dream. _Wow…_ I sighed, too disheartened to do much else. None of them had to worry about their lives tonight thanks to the boy. He had saved their lives whether he knew it or not just by being there. I couldn't kill _them_ because doing so would have killed the_ child_ inside. I didn't want the innocence in his smile to disappear. Though, if it had been my decision, I wouldn't have gone easy… And the kid _was_ gone now. He wouldn't know if two of them went missing, would he?

_Nah._ I dismissed the thought. The boy might come back, and murdering two men in front of a kid just wasn't my style.

I looked at the man cowering at me with a little sadness. "You know, you guys can still make up for what you've done; you're not too far gone. I can tell by your eyes." The wounded man continued to shiver.

His big, sad eyes watered, and he began to cry. I examined him with new interest as he apologized through his blubbering. His body, though muscular and intimidating, wasn't the body of fighter—it was that of someone who worked hard for a living, of someone who worked to survive every day. I reconsidered whether or not I should have damaged his hand. Something tells me he wouldn't have hurt the child even if he was given the order.

I rolled my eyes. "None of you are this worthless, so would you stop acting as though you are? It sickens me."

His eyes widened. More tears came out. "I'm sorry," he whispered when I came over to him. "I'm sorry," he said as I knocked him unconscious. "I'm sorry…" he muttered as I ripped off the sleeve of his shirt and clotted the wound before wrapping it. It was the most I could do without disinfectant. The rest would be up to him when he woke up.

When I finished, my eyes were drawn to the man's bloodstain. It stood out against the ground, and could only be cleaned up with water that I didn't have. At least his hand was clear of blood, though. His continuous tears had washed it away as he wept in fetal position.

I sat up, deciding there was nothing more I wanted to do, and looked at the sky. There was no moon, no stars. An overcast night covered with clouds that may or may not bring rain.

_What a pity. _All the light for the night was coming from the street vendors' stores. I walked back toward them, rubbing my hands together delicately. My shadow accompanied me as I got closer to the street and grew larger the closer I got to the light. Then, my foot brushed against something. I glanced down and stepped over a crumpled form. It was the man who had originally opposed his leader. He was lying just out of view of the street.

_It really wasn't a fair fight. Poor guy. I guess ANBU training comes in handy for some things._


	5. Chapter 5 Master Overcome

**Sorry this took so unbelievably long to come out. :( I'll get the urge to write, and then as soon as I open Microsoft Word, it disappears. Hope you've enjoyed the chapters so far. I can't spot OOC-ness in my own stories. If you see me go astray with Kishimoto's characters, please tell me. PLEASE! And I'm not a naturally funny writer either, but please alert me if the story becomes too angsty. (though it **_**is**_** under "tragedy"…)**

**Check my profile! I'll post frequently about when you can expect an update. That way anyone who is actually interested in this story can keep track of its progress.**

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO! Characters © Masashi Kishimoto! **

**(And read/watch D. Gray-man! Praise random subliminal suggestions!)**

…**Wait, what? Where did that come from? 0_o Oh well.**_** Do eet! **_**Haha the manga's great!**

Chapter 5: Master Overcome

Jiraiya rolled off his sleeping mat and stood up. Last night had been amazing: women, sake, money, lights… It wasn't until he had walked halfway across the hotel room that the hangover hit. And _man_ did it hit hard. How much sake, exactly, had he drank?

Jiraiya groaned, taking his splitting head as incentive to go back to sleep. He was about to stumble back to his mat when he stopped, realizing the covers were now halfway across the room. It was too treacherous to go back. Would he be able to make it? The room was spinning, his head felt awful, and for some reason his left ear was clogged up. He decided that backtracking would be out of the question. So instead of making the long journey back, the Sage scrutinized the wooden floor of the hotel, shrugged, and plopped down. Anything was better than standing. Now if only he could get a blanket…

Jiraiya searched the room like a hungry frog and locked onto a sleeping form only an arms width away. With an evil smirk, he reached for his blonde student's bed sheet, grabbed it, and rolled away, quickly wrapping himself in the stolen warmth. The cool sting of the morning air woke Naruto immediately.

"What the—?" he gasped, looking around in confusion.

The hotel room wasn't anything special, but it was in far better condition than the last, which was now undergoing renovations. _Big _renovations. Due to two certain members of Akatsuki, half the hallway had a crazy scar coursing through it and one room was completely destroyed, in part due to the Chidori which Itachi had deflected. The second floor was uninhabitable, and so were all to rooms above it. The structure was no longer sound. Of course, Sasuke had helped a little—or a lot—in the demolition, but Naruto chose to overlook that detail. Itachi could have allowed the Chidori to hit him…

The boy smiled wryly. Considering their circumstances, he counted Jiraiya and himself rather lucky to find a room. Apparently word spread quickly through hotel chains. Managers turned them away left and right, all unwilling to let such a detrimental duo into the amenities. Even the manager of _this_ hotel was initially afraid of letting them step foot in his establishment, but he had cooled down after Jiraiya "persuaded" him with an inconspicuous chat behind the desk. Naruto still wasn't sure what exactly the Sage had said; he didn't think he wanted to know.

_That pervy sage…. _Naruto's blue eyes glided over to the smooth conversationalist he'd been thinking about, and he twitched slightly as he remembered exactly why he was awake. _That pervy sage! _He thought acridly.

His teacher definitely looked comfortable sleeping there with _his_ covers. But when exactly had it become okay for Jiraiya to steal his blanket? Oh, that's right. NEVER!

"You lazy hermit!" Naruto stomped over to his teacher and tried to retrieve his mat sheet. However, for a man with a hangover, Jiraiya was surprisingly coherent. He put up a decent and determined fight worthy of a Sanin, kicking and punching and swatting away his student's attempts to take the sheets away. At some point during the struggle, the boy ended up flying through the air, hitting a wall, and landing on his butt. Naruto wasn't even quite sure how it had happened. He sat at the base of the wall for a moment, stunned.

Then he exploded. "What is wrong with you, Pervy Sage?" Naruto bellowed. "Teachers are supposed to help their students, not act like them!"

Jiraiya didn't even bother to look at Naruto as he mumbled a low, "Getofer yerself…" and turned away.

Naruto rubbed his sore head—the first thing that had hit the wall—and silently glowered at Jiraiya. "Damn perv…" Naruto grumbled.

It wasn't as though he hadn't sustained worse injuries, and Jiraiya hadn't thrown him too hard, but still. Being hit by Jiraiya was like being punched by Sakura: a low blow. Comrade-induced hits usually hurt the most, whether the hit was controlled or not. And Naruto didn't have to put up a false bravado with his teammates. Since they were all on the same side, Naruto could easily show that yes, having your head launched into a wall _does_ indeed hurt.

"I'm teaching you an important lesson right now, boy. Don't ever let your guard down—even when you're asleep."

Naruto scowled. "The only lesson you're supposed to be teaching me is how to use the Fourth's jutsu!"

Jiraiya squinted at Naruto for a second. There was a moment where Naruto was sure he'd receive a rebuttal, but then the Sage turned over lazily and pulled the sheet over his head. Naruto grumbled some more to himself and Jiraiya continued to ignore him. It was a miracle steam wasn't spewing from his ears considering how anger he felt. Maybe if Jiraiya were the one freezing without a sheet he wouldn't be so smug.

"Pervy Sage," he said, speaking loud enough so he was sure the drunken man would hear him. "What do I have to do for you to take this seriously?"

Silence.

For a long time Naruto was sure Jiraiya had fallen asleep again, and with a small twinge, he felt his rib cage constrict in an uncomfortable way. He let out a sigh. It was always like this. People constantly belittling his abilities or showing distrust. Naruto had allowed himself to think Jiraiya was different; he'd allowed himself to think the sage wasn't bothered by the fact he had the Nine-Tails inside him. Yet he couldn't help but feel the man was weary of teaching him a technique that might make Naruto a threat—that might actually make him stronger.

"Go prove yourself," Jiraiya finally mumbled after an unreasonably quiet amount of time.

Naruto nearly hit the ceiling at Jiraiya's voice. "And how do I do that?"

Again there was a pause. "Well…" The sage wiggled around on the floor a bit, getting all giggly in a way that made Naruto's hope drop. "There's always _one_ sure-fire way to show me your ability." Jiraiya gave his perverted old laugh and Naruto lost it.

"I'm _not_ doing sexy jutsu every time you decide to get lazy!"

Jiraiya snorted. "Not _that _you idiot!" The boy knew Jiraiya was rolling his eyes. "I want a _real _challenge. Find me a good view of the women in this town and I'll teach you what you want to know."

Naruto stood still, feeling like Jiraiya had just nailed him with a kunai. Was the training seriously so worthless that Jiraiya needed bribing? He hated training Naruto enough to need compensation…?

Suddenly fire flared up inside the boy. He wanted to kick his sensei in the face—and it would have been easy to do, too, with his target so close to the ground. But before Naruto allowed their fight to switch to more violence, he grabbed his wallet—which he had taken to keeping on him at all times since the last incident—got dressed, and slammed the room's door behind him. Just to make sure Jiraiya got the picture that he was pissed.

…

The moment Naruto stepped outside he felt infinitely better. The street had only a few people milling around, and compared to the liveliness Naruto knew to expect as the day went on and business started up, it was nice—calm. The small crowd's chatter was like a quiet and warm buzzing. It made for a comforting atmosphere. He smiled, thinking it had turned out to be a nice day even if it'd started out rather rough. Off to the side of the building, Naruto even heard the sound of birds chirping.

They twittered a typically cliché kind of happy tune, but it was somewhat pleasant to hear. He listened for a while. However, when he tried to locate the sound of the chirping he noticed something. Not a single bird in sight.

And yet that wasn't the strangest thing. Their song echoed off the entire town, following him, and no matter how far Naruto got from the hotel, he could always hear the birds. It was as though the town were built in some gigantic bowl and the walls kept flinging the tune back toward an invisible center Naruto was always standing on. But he shrugged the anomaly off easily enough. Wherever the birds were, it was a good hiding spot.

Naruto took in a deep breath, trying to prepare himself for the day, and started wandering around the shops. The first time he and Jiraiya'd come here, it'd been a blast. The place was so busy you had to get caught up in the vibe. The lights, the smells, the voices. It was all alluring.

Too bad he hadn't come for shopping, though. Naruto had tagged along with the sole intent of training to better himself. The Akatsuki's recent attack left him feeling rushed—like there wasn't enough time to train when ninja as powerful as Itachi and Kisame were out there. _And they're all after the Nine-Tails too… _He clutched the invisible seal circling his stomach. It stuck out to him even if it was covered by his orange jumpsuit.

_I'll just have to get stronger, _he thought.

A memory of Sasuke's screams came to mind as he remembered the recent attack and Naruto scowled. Even highly skilled ninja were having problems: Kakashi in the hospital, Kurenai nearly blasted to bits, and the Great Might Guy went so far as to deem Akatsuki a "challenge." _It'll be hard, but I'll have to do it. _He wanted to make sure no one else was hurt. That no one else had to go through pain again. If the Akatsuki continued to come after Naruto, he wasn't sure what means they would take to accomplish their goal. They might go after anyone—the next person might even be Sakura—

"Sakura," he mumbled, feeling a shiver of fear race through him. He couldn't beat even _one _Akatsuki, and if there was a whole organization after him—

Another spindle of fear washed over him and he felt his heart beat increase. How could he possibly do this? At his current level he was as good as dead, wasn't he?

His jaw set with a definitive snap and he looked toward the rising sun. He closed his eyes in thought, trying to rationalize things out for once. A few deep breaths calmed him; it was better not to get overwhelmed with these kinds of things. And after all, there was still plenty of time to train. He had a whole day, didn't he? At least 17 hours, that's for sure.

_17 hours, _he mused. It certainly_ seemed _like a decent amount of time, but how much could he accomplish on his own without a sensei?

_I don't want to give in to that old pervert's game, but…seems like I have to._

Just then, a man walked by with a street-car full of masks. The boy watched for a second, hesitated, sighed. It seemed like fate was pushing him in Jiraiya's direction.

"Hey, Old Man," groaned Naruto reluctantly as the man came closer. It almost hurt to admit he was giving in. The vendor pushing the car paused to scowl for a second, as if unsure whether to respond to the unflattering nickname, and eventually looked in Naruto's direction. The boy grinned to himself. "Where's the nearest bath house? You live here, don't ya?"

The man's eyes narrowed but he nodded once. "Yeah, I do, brat." He glared at Naruto before jabbing his thumb behind him in a general direction. "And the closest bath house is down next to Yubaba's place." When Naruto's expression showed no change, the man's scowl deepened. "The hotel Yubaba, kid. It's across from the squid shop. Just keep walking straight and you'll find it eventually."

"Oh!" He knew where the squid shop was. It was just a few days ago that he'd bought a squid for himself and Jiraiya and then… His hand subconsciously went to the little frog wallet in his pocket. (It was still there). "Phew." Naruto turned on his heel and started jogging off down the street, calling, "Thanks Old Man!" over his shoulder. He was sure he heard something about 'stupid tourist,' but he ignored the comment. He was about to find a 'good view of the woman' so Jiraiya would actually teach him something.

It only took about ten minutes to find the bath house, which pleasantly surprised Naruto. A big welcoming banner had been strung across the entrance saying, "CLEAN THE GRIME OF TRAVEL AWAY—TOURISTS WELCOME." And indeed they were. In the time it took Naruto to read the sign, two more guests had gone through the doors.

Female guests, he took care to notice.

A grin spread across his face, the expression making him appear more fox-like. It was almost too easy. He ducked into a nearby alley, prepared to make the handsigns for a transformation jutsu when he looked at the ground and noticed an odd stain that looked like dried blood. The thought worried him a little but he ignored the burgundy blotch. Stuff happened in tourist towns. Some drunks probably got into an argument and had a fight.

"Sexy Jutsu!" He said silently to himself as a stream of smoke appeared. Once it was gone, Naruto looked over his body, making sure all the proper changes were in order. For this particular instance, he'd decided to downplay the nudity and transformed his clothes to resemble the traditional kimonos he'd seen the girls around town wearing. A little modesty would hopefully help to convince the bath house owner that he was really a woman—and hopefully he'd have more success tricking her than he would in his own village.

A small compulsion forced him to glance quickly over his appearance in a merchant's mirror before actually trying to enter the bath house. He turned his head from side to side admiring his work, and as he walked away, he winked at the vendor. The man turned bright red and Naruto swaggered away toward his target with a contented smirk.

Getting past the entrance was easy enough. Every time he passed another woman he nodded and tried to speak as little as possible. He feared accidentally conversing with someone and using a masculine form of speaking; if he did, a woman would surely realize what he was doing. By the time he reached the bath house and had a robe on to cover himself with when he was finished "bathing," Naruto had worked up a steady sweat. What if it didn't work? What if one of the women called him out?

"Excuse me."

Naruto nearly jumped out of the robe. He turned around to see a small, short haired woman standing behind him. He pointed dumbly to himself, hoping with all hope there might be a chance she'd mistaken him for someone else. _She isn't talking to me, right? _He glanced around and panicked when he realized there was no one else for her to address. He looked back to the woman and she nodded.  
"You're shoes will get ruined if you walk into the bathing room with them on," she said, gliding past him but continuing to speak over her shoulder, "you should take them off."

"Oh! Th—Thank you," he murmured. She walked the rest of the way to the bathing room without looking back. By now Naruto's legs were shaking from anxiousness. As soon as he was sure she wasn't suspicious, Naruto turned back and removed his shoes as quickly as possible. He came to the hallway again, less on edge than before and reached the final room before stopping at the bathing room door.

_It's easy, just open it. _He moved his arm upward. _No one will find out. _His fingers twitched as they reached out. _This is for training!_

He finally pulled open the door—!

… Just as a woman came out. A small clip of her familiar brown hair caught his attention immediately and his instincts reacted quicker than his brain could. He bolted for it. His body turned and he ran straight into another woman, knocking her down from the force of the collision. He did not stop to apologize.

The poor lady yelled a few unkind words at his back which made him feel guilty, but then he recognized the other voice consoling the woman he'd just knocked down. Naruto willed his legs faster. That woman's hair was familiar and so was her voice—he couldn't have her recognize him. What if she already had? What if she thought he was peeking? He didn't wonder long, for she too was yelling at him a moment later.

"Hey! Wait up!"

Naruto never slowed down; he ran faster until he'd reached the forest where he'd been practicing the Fourth's jutsu. As soon as he passed the vegetation's threshold, he jumped behind a bush and undid the jutsu.

_That was close, _he thought as he tried slowing his breath. _I thought for sure she'd seen me. _A few more seconds of recuperation and Naruto stepped away from the bush, threw the bath robe off his shoulders since his normal clothes had reappeared, looked around, and set off in the opposite direction of town. His legs were still carrying him far too fast to be considered a normal pace, yet he couldn't convince himself he cared long enough to slow down. The sooner he got away from that fiasco the better.

A bird cawed from the top of a tree and he jumped. When he looked up toward the branches, it flew down and landed next to his feet, staring up at him expectantly.

He sidestepped it with minimal effort, but as soon as he took a step past the little creature, the bird pecked at his pinkie toe and cawed again, louder this time. "Ow! Why you little—" When Naruto tried scooting the bird off to the side with his foot, it retaliated with another peck. Around the time Naruto had started bouncing from side to side like an idiot to confuse the bird, he heard footsteps behind him.

"Well if it isn't Naruto! I said we'd run into each other some time or another but—well, it's just too bad you seemed to take me literally."

Naruto froze as Rika's hand came down on his shoulder. He guessed she'd meant to hide her anger, but the hold of her hand gave it away. It was too strong. He no longer wondered if she'd seen him.

"And oh yeah," she said as an afterthought, her hand still firmly locking him in place, "You also ran into the wrong person, just so you know. She was furious."

Naruto's heart seemed to skip a beat but he squeaked out a dismal, "What are you talking about? Hah. I haven't run into anyone today, only you."

To the boy's disappointment, Rika rolled her eyes and placed a hand on her hip impatiently. "If that's what you want to say."

It didn't take long for Naruto to come clean about spying in the bath house, and when he did, he was surprised at how understanding Rika was.

"So," he ventured when he'd finished recounting his little adventure. "You believe me? That I was only doing it to get the Pervy Sage to teach me?"

Rika was fiddling with the little bird that bit Naruto earlier (it had flown straight to her after her appearance), but she paused long enough to roll her eyes and nod. "Yeah, Naruto. I believe you."

Naruto looked crestfallen for a moment as Rika smiled at him in a patient sort of way. Something was unsettling about her smile, but he smiled back nonetheless, and with sudden inspiration, sprung to his feet.

"Hey," he said with what Rika considered a childish grin plastering his face. "Wanna go down to the town for a bit? There're these great stands and they have games and stuff." At this he pointed to himself proudly, just as he had done the other day when they first met. "I'm getting pretty good at them. Just yesterday I swear I nearly caught one of those tricky little fishes. If you come with me maybe—"

"No," she stated.

He looked a little hurt at the bluntness and she hastily added a quick, "Thanks though" to the end. He didn't seem comforted in the least and slumped back onto the ground next to her, a small frown forming in place of the brief smile. He uprooted a few strands of grass, opting to avoid her stare by examining the individual blades.

"You know about it, don't you?" he asked quietly after a long span of silence, finally abandoning the grass and throwing it off to the side.

Rika jumped; the small bird on her shoulder took flight at her movement and gave an indignant hoot, which she ignored in favor of turning her attention on Naruto. "Know wha—?"

"That I have that stupid demon inside me!" He said angrily, though because he feared being overheard, his voice was scarcely louder than normal. Rika looked as though she'd been physically shocked, and unseen by Naruto, started pulling a kunai from her back pocket. She clutched it tightly behind her, waiting for him to make a move. Even though he remained where he was, glaring at the ground, her grip didn't loosen. He finally looked at her and his eyes were burning.

"You're a ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village," he said in an accusing tone. "I saw it on your headband yesterday, and when you said my name. . . Well, everyone from the Leaf would know my name because everyone always whispered about me." His eyes grow a little distant and sad as he thought of it. She didn't comment, and so his anger returned with slightly less emotion behind it when he spoke again. "Is it that obvious? Can other ninja always tell who I am because of the demon inside me? Is that why you knew?"

He was staring at her without flinching. She returned the look, already relaxing again with her weapon replaced in its case. They were both quiet.

"Look, Naruto," said Rika as she glared up at the tree tops. "I'm not refusing to go into town with you because you have the Fox Demon inside you."

He seemed scandalized. "So you _did_ know!"

She held up a finger before he could protest anything more. "The reason I'm not going with you is because. . ."—she smirked at him—". . . you wouldn't be able to handle me beating you!"

His answering grin was immediate. Within minutes they were walking back toward the town, the small bird that had pecked Naruto once again trailing behind Rika. When he mentioned how odd it was the bird was comfortable around humans, Rika merely smiled. "Yeah," she agreed. "He does seem like a strange little thing, following strangers without a thought."

For some reason, Naruto could have sworn he saw Rika smirking out of the corner of his eye when she said that, but when he turned to double check, she was looking straight ahead without an expression. She caught his gaze and smiled politely as though waiting for him to speak. He tried to return a smile, and the attempt was so feeble he covered it by pointing to the shops coming into view.

The first station he saw was full of masks. As he and Rika walked by it, he paused, pulled off an ANBU animal façade, and shoved it over his face. The vendor chuckled when Naruto rounded on Rika, moving into a mock fighting pose and pretending to challenge her, and Rika smiled. But she did not laugh. It was with irritation that Naruto noticed none of her smiles seemed to reach her eyes, though he failed to notice the flash of anger that glinted when he turned away. Soon he put the mask back and they moved on, halfheartedly declining the mask vendor's attempts to sell them any goods.

Naruto found he was rather enjoying Rika's company as the day dragged on and they continued to pass shop after shop, making small talk with the vendors without ever really saying anything of value. A few of the male vendors and a flower lady, Naruto realized, had offered him better deals than he probably would have gotten without Rika around. Some clapped him on the back, congratulating him for having an 'older woman' and he was thankful they always managed to do it when Rika's attention was elsewhere. It made his face turn red every time. He wondered if they would do the same if he'd been traveling with Sakura instead.

He briefly fantasized someone congratulating him for having Sakura with him, thought of her expression if she overheard someone congratulating him, and the mental image of her rage was enough to drain the color from his face.

"Are you okay?" said Rika as she put a hand to his forehead. Naruto huffed. How she expected to check his temperature was beyond him; she had on thick training gloves that covered her palms and exposed only her fingers. "You look a little worse for wear."

Naruto shook his head to say nothing was wrong, and she put her hand down with another of those smiles that failed to reach her eyes. They continued on for a while longer before finally deciding to have lunch at a small station called Yuna's. The tables inside were rather small so Naruto and Rika chose a bench outside the establishment where an older woman—Naruto assumed she was Yuna based on the way she thanked them for business—handed out food to her customers with a wobbly little tray. It was a quiet lunch, and when they left Naruto felt slightly less happy than he had before. Rika didn't seem too interested in spending much longer in his company; she kept looking around like she was expecting to see someone else.

"So where is this fish stand you were talking about earlier?" asked Rika curiously after they'd walked what she thought was long enough.

Naruto glanced around as if taking note of his surroundings for the first time and shrugged. "I thought it was around here, but it might have moved. Doesn't really seem like there are assigned areas for these guys to set up," said Naruto, indicating the stands and tents around them. Rika nodded. It would be simple for them to move around. Many of the stands looked as though they'd be easy to set up, and their inventory too was designed to be light-weight for quick storage.

Rika was about to comment, but then she abruptly looked behind them and stopped walking altogether. Naruto stopped. He looked around too, trying to see whatever had caught her attention, but upon seeing nothing unusual he glanced back up to ask her what was wrong. Before he could, Rika was grabbing his arm and dragging him down another path. His head jerked up to her, startled, but he followed her nonetheless. Somehow he knew not to ask her what she was doing. The stoic expression on her face was making any questions he would have asked stick to the back of his throat.

Rika stopped just as suddenly as she'd started walking. Naruto heard her mutter a small, "shit" and looked forward around the alley they were facing. His confusion peaked, and finally his gaze fell onto the other person standing alone at the end of the brick stretch. The familiar man waved his hand in greeting, a fake smile coming across his features. When his voice reached Naruto, he was surprised at how hostile it sounded.

"Hey, Naruto," said Jiraiya, though his eyes were resting on Rika rather than his student. He didn't look away from her. "Nice gloves you've got there, girl," he added as his eyes flitted over the hand Rika had wrapped around Naruto's arm.

"Thanks," she said tersely.

As soon as Jiraiya mentioned it, she allowed her hand to drop to her side with such definitiveness Naruto was a bit insulted; it was as though she'd accidentally grabbed a stranger and was only just realizing the error. Jiraiya's facial expression didn't change when he at last looked upon Naruto.

"Go back to the hotel, Naruto, I think I left one of my scrolls."

For once Naruto didn't feel like arguing with Jiraiya's order. He paused only to shoot Rika a look, silently asking if she minded if he left. She wasn't looking at him.

"Go on," she said in a detached voice.

Naruto nodded and turned around to leave the alley, but before he left he saw a flash of confusion and then suspicion waver over Jiraiya's face. The mood was suddenly tense and agitated. Just what, Naruto wanted to know, was happening? He resisted looking back at Jiraiya and ask. If the Sanin was getting confused, Naruto wasn't sure he wanted to know. He walked a little faster to get out of their way.

Soon the back of Naruto's heel clipped around the corner of the alley and he was gone. After a span of silence Jiraiya walked away from Rika, not bothering to stop or look at her when he spoke in an authoritative voice.

"Let's go for a walk, you and me."

She complied, following a few steps behind and keeping her eyes fixed on her former teacher. It was admirable the way he walked: completely relaxed, as though he didn't have a dangerous student trailing his footsteps. Rika supposed he was doing it to annoy her or insult her but said nothing in response. It was almost as bad to let him know he'd succeeded in annoying her as it was pretending it didn't. Because really it did.

Before long she was whistling a small tune to herself; it was cliché and happy and Jiraiya stiffened. He stopped short, his shoulders tense as though preparing to pack a punch. Rika boldly allowed herself to drift in front of him before she too stopped and turned to look back at him with an arched brow. It was entirely too innocent. Annoyingly so.

"Sorry," said Rika. "Does that bother you?"

Jiraiya ignored her and pointed to a small sake bar. "Come on." He began parting the hanging flags on the outer rim so he could duck inside, but seeing her hesitation he paused. "What is it?"

"I can't drink. I'm underage," she explained, shooting him an incredulous look. "Or have you forgotten?"

He cracked a smile. "How old are you again?"

"Seventeen." Her eyebrow gave a small twitch and Jiraiya turned away to hide his grin.

"Well, that doesn't mean _I_ can't have a good time!" And he was through the flaps ordering a drink before Rika could say anything more. She entered as well, shaking her head in disbelief at his comfort. As soon as she sat down beside him at the bar he was asking questions. But nothing of the sort she was expecting: how have you been? Got any boyfriends? No? How are you eating lately? Why don't you wear make up? (Several of these earned glares, all of which Jiraiya ignored.)

"What's with the gloves?"

It was this question, Rika suspected, that he'd been setting up. She put her glass of water down, stalling slightly, and shrugged as she looked down at the material covering her hands. They stretched comfortably across her palms, running from the top of her knuckles and extending past her wrists. "Nothing. Nothing's 'with the gloves,' _Sensei." _

There was a moment where he scrutinized her. She was obviously lying, and yet there was no real reason to start a fight where one could be avoided. He let the matter rest and asked no more leading questions. With interrogation put aside temporarily, both Jiraiya and Rika found it easier to speak with each other. A few times he believed she genuinely smiled, and he found himself doing the same, but then the air became stiff and they were once again guarded against each other. It got quiet at times when neither of them spoke. While Jiraiya found it difficult speaking of topics that didn't concern Konoha, Rika seemed against saying much of anything at all. Her silence was disconcerting.

Finally Jiraiya finished his last drop of sake and the two headed out. Rika blinked back the sun as they stepped onto the street; though it felt like they'd been in the little bar for a long period, it dawned on her it must have been about two hours or so. The day was still young.

"Shall we continue our walk?" Jiraiya asked more politely this time. Rika nodded, walking by his side rather than trailing behind since it felt more natural. She had, after all and though she didn't wish to admit it, been his student once and had walked comfortably by his side years ago. Plus, she wanted to be on equal ground when he finally started asking the real questions. And sure enough the questions came. Quickly. He hardly wasted time before he was shooting them off.

"What brought you here?"

"Nothing."

Jiraiya didn't even acknowledge that she'd spoken. He hadn't expected an honest answer so he tried again, firing off seemingly polite question after question, as though asking out of the blue might startle the truth out of her. It didn't, and looking back he wasn't sure why he had done so. Jiraiya knew she didn't scare easy.

"Can we stop this?" she drawled. "I hate it when people peruse the subject they want to talk about. You just end up going in circles."

"I suppose you do," he allowed. "All right, let's stop this, Rika. Your act was making me nauseous anyway." She resisted the urge to hit him as the slow smile hitched across his face. "What are you doing here and what do you want with Naruto? Honestly now. I don't want to threaten you." It looked like a thought flitted through his head and he added, as though to himself, "No, I don't want to threaten you. I've got a feeling I'll have to threaten another acquaintance soon enough."

She decided not to comment on his afterthought. "Can it not be coincidence that we happen to be in the same village at the same time?"

Jiraiya frowned. "No, I don't think so." He glanced sideways at her, unwilling to let her out of his sight for long because he thought she might escape. "Especially when you've abandoned your headband."

Rika huffed her bangs from her eyes. Indeed, she had stashed the old Konoha fabric away after her encounter with the thugs, which left her hair dangling right into her face. It seemed like the best course of action since she was being recognized too quickly as a ninja.

"I'm working, Jiraiya, and before you ask, what I'm working on is none of your business. It didn't even involve you or the Uzumaki kid."

"But it does now?" he pressed.

"Oh _shut up._ Please. No, it doesn't." She was looking disgruntled and ruffled, like standing close to Jiraiya was taking a great effort. She kept rubbing her arms as if to rid them of goose bumps. Jiraiya, on the other hand, appeared just as calm as before; the only thing to betray him were his eyes. They were sharp, calculating.

"May I ask another question then, if what you're doing really doesn't involve Naruto or myself?"

Her dark eyes settled on him with a glare. "Are you giving me a choice?"

"No." He smiled, and when she didn't protest either way he continued. "There's one thing that's been bothering me," Jiraiya admitted, gaving Rika an even look before adding, "Or, I suppose there's a lot that's been bothering me, but this more so."

Rika kept a steady pace by him and looked straight ahead as she replied. "What is it?"

Jiraiya looked at her evenly, as though measuring her up. "Before I ask, let me tell you now: I want to know what happened, and I don't want you dodging my question, okay?" He kept staring intently at her, waiting for her to give an unwilling nod of consent before he went on. "Rika, what I want to know," he said severely, "is how you escaped from the highest security prison in Konoha when you were hardly a Chuunin."

The world seemed to stop in a suspended moment of stillness as the words came out of his mouth. Simultaneously, Rika's hands moved as though to hold clasp themselves before she quickly corrected the movement and forced them to her sides. Jiraiya perceived the small slip-up. It was the classic gesture of one of Konoha's condemned; a telltale sign of repression and someone who had been shackled. Both of them were silent for a moment while Rika recovered, then she shot him a puzzled look and Jiraiya frowned.

"Tell me," he ordered. "_Now_."

Rika looked at him slowly, detesting how the request had suddenly converted to a command. If she were intimidated by her master's anger, she didn't show it. The suspended silence ended and the sound of the bustling crowd came back as she gave her first honest reply.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

He stopped walking and turned toward her. She turned toward him, too, out of courtesy, and met his irritated eyes with unwavering resolve. "Rika, I know you were imprisoned for a time, and I know you broke out specifically to kill your teammates. Now I want to know how you, as a thirteen year old girl, managed to break out of the Leaf's best prison."

Jiraiya again received silence as Rika examined him, at first in skepticism and then in amusement.

She waited a moment more before her eyes widened with incredulity. "Wait, you're—You're actually serious?" she cried out in disbelief. Then, quite suddenly, she began to laugh; Jiraiya shifted uncomfortably at the sound. Though normally he would have been resentful to have a student mock him, he couldn't muster up the feeling. Instead of squirming at his ridicule, he gradually grew more wary of the girl as her laughter continued.

It was a different from her old laugh; this new one was demented, harsh. And Rika wouldn't stop. The vile, humorless sound kept coming from her until she flung her head back and abruptly cut-off, her expression becoming grim as quickly as it had lit up. When she looked at him again, she did it with dark eyes.

"Whoever you're receiving information from is confused," she deadpanned. "I was imprisoned before I ever thought of committing a crime against the Leaf, and I never broke out of that damnable place."

"What?" Jiraiya's blood went cold, and his hand absentmindedly moved toward his chest. It was where the Elders' papers were, where he had got the information from. When his hand brushed against them, they made the smallest sound of shifting paper. That was Jiraiya's first slip-up; but Rika didn't overlook his mistake as he'd done for hers when she'd accidentally made to clasp her hands. Unlike her former teacher, she jumped on the opening the moment it presented itself. Instantly the space between them closed.

She stabbed her weapon into the Sanin's chest.

It stuck soundly, and as the blade disappeared their eyes locked, his widening in shock. It took Jiraiya only a split second to recover with lightning-fast speed, and he jumped back as Rika dislodged her weapon from his flesh and kicked off him. They both landed about two yards from each other and stared—Jiraiya, his hand probing at his torn clothes and somehow unscathed body; Rika, her hand holding a familiar manila envelope. It was punctured, not by a kunai, but an oddly curved and fine pointed knife; a hook, almost. The move had been carried out with deadly accuracy. Bystanders on the street hadn't known anything had happened until Jiraiya was jumping away and Rika was kicking off his chest. Now a small clearing had formed where people had moved away from them. Some were staring at Rika in fright, unsure what was going on. Others backed away, hurrying to get away from the potential fight as quickly as possible. Parents were ushering their children into the nearest shops.

"I wonder what this is, Sensei," Rika cooed. She daintily swung the packet back and forth like a pendulum and continued to stare at Jiraiya with cold eyes. "You've been hiding it from me this whole time."

Jiraiya stopped examining himself. It hadn't been an attack; it was all a farce to get the papers. She had purposely missed his skin. "Heh. How annoying." He shot her a cocky smile and held up his hands in defeat. "All right, all right. I admit it. I got a little curious about you,"—here he made kissy lips to her, sporting an idiotic face and she recoiled—"and I wanted to know what kind of woman you became!"

Rika stared at him, dumbfounded. "You old pervert!" she yelled automatically, as if she'd yelled the same line many times before. "I don't know why the Leaf Village even looks up to you! It's like… it's like you haven't even changed at all," she added softly, either from sadness or disdain Jiraiya couldn't tell, and he stopped joking. A small smile had come to her lips, but it wasn't her old or new one. It looked different. "I suppose their tracking me now, right?"

Jiraiya didn't respond, but his look was answer enough.

"And you were ordered to protect that kid from me and find out more information?"

He gave—or in this case, didn't give—the same response.

"Well." Rika tsked. Any trace of that odd emotion left her face, being replaced by mild interest and growing aggravation. She opened the packet carelessly and glanced over the contents, commenting as she flipped through the pages. "Let's see: This is trash… Ooh, didn't think they knew that… Hmm that's new, too…"

Jiraiya watched silently, a sinking feeling becoming more pronounced in his stomach the longer she read. When Rika finished, she shot him a devilish smile and held her life's chronicles at arms length away from her. Jiraiya knew what she was going to do before she even performed the hand seals.

"Konoha did a decent job, I guess. I bet some of this information was difficult to come by." She said appreciatively at their hard work though her tone was condescending. "But they're still missing two major details…"

Jiraiya watched as Rika took a breath to taper her temper. He wanted to stop her from performing the hand signs he knew were coming, but at the same time it seemed useless. He felt an inexplicable whim to simply allow her to do as she pleased, if only to smite the two elders back in the village. She was smiling cruelly as though she could read his mind.

"When you go home, Sensei, you can confirm this: yes, I have indeed mastered another elemental type chakra, as they listed in these papers," the envelope flared into flames, proving she had mastered fire in addition to wind elemental type. Her lips curled into an ugly smirk as he chronicled the fact.

"And tell them this is a warning," she added, "from Akatsuki."

Everything went dark, followed by the strangest rustling sound like thousands of bodies moving as one. The side street was eclipsed as the large mass moved across the sun. Looking up, Jiraiya found thousands of birds, all of different sizes, circling above.

…

**I needed to get this out, even if it does suck.**

**I started this chapter immediately after the last so I thought it'd be good, but now I'm extremely disappointed. Ugh. Only took a year. I wrote the beginning, middle, and end of it at different times. It probably doesn't flow well… Hopefully chapter six won't be so hard to crank out. -_- I'm not sure how people update weekly, but props to those who do.**

**And by the way, what would you classify the mist/fog that appears whenever the characters in Naruto use ninjutsu like transformations and summonings and stuff? I called it smoke here. 0_0 Mist maybe? Smoky mist? Magical ninja puffs? Eh oh well. Review if you'd like.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Did anyone watch/read D. Gray-man by any chance? Yes? (yay!) No? (You totally should!)**

**I'm a beta reader now. I've been working on correcting someone else's story, so Life, Death, and Between has been rather neglected. Not to mention scholarship and college essays were piling up before. :( But my top choice of college has sent out an acceptance letter, so all I have to worry about now are scholarships to pay for the ridiculously high tuition! *faints* Sorry to those following this story! I see the views and feel guilty. D: **

**Please enjoy. All of Naruto universe © Masashi Kishimoto. **

Chapter 6: Partners

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Four years ago losing my temper came about as natural as losing my mind. One second would find me content and the next would bring blood—usually my own. For a while I tried living in an imaginary world where I was convinced insanity was normalcy. But that dream came to an end, and with its death came the world's truth: anger, confusion, hatred, and pain. It was this acceptance, this final and terrible understanding of my mental condition that set me over the edge. I stopped eating, abandoned my voice, hid myself away, and refused interaction with anyone. It was only after being forcibly thrown into a hospital that I regained enough sanity to live again, but it was a miserable existence full of emptiness.

Akatsuki found me at a terrible time. My mind was grossly debunked despite the serious attempts I had taken to reclaim my life, and the precarious balance I had created within myself was susceptible to tip at the weight of a feather. The hospital which assisted me in the early days had cleared me out when I was fit enough to be tossed onto the streets again… but I couldn't function properly no matter how hard I tried. For spans of time I maintained my grip on reality, and then suddenly it slipped through my fingers, leaving me with nothing more than the burning feeling that I'd lost something important. When I resurfaced from the spans of blank space and developed my senses again, I feared the return of the void because I knew it was inevitable—something I couldn't control. There was no home for me to return to and no person to worry about me. Life was a nuisance. It was a cycle of confusion.

Around that time I met one of my future colleagues, Konan. At first she was slightly frightening, but she was also the first human I successfully recognized as being from that other world—the real world—after my third relapse into nothingness. It was the sight of her Akatsuki uniform and its blood red dawn that successfully tethered me to reality. A red cloud. A black, blank canvas. Such a simple design resonated with something deep within me and gave me strength.

Perhaps it gave me hope to think that something could exist in the seemingly blank space of an abyss. If there could be a dawn in pure darkness, just as the cloak shown, maybe the same was true for the abyss of my insanity: maybe I had a light within that blankness that I had never noticed.

Or perhaps seeing the cloak spurred something worse than hope inside me. Maybe it spurred a hatred so strong I refused to relapse again…

Either way, I decided to use the cloak to remedy my madness. I clung to it for dear life, like some kind of life preserver, and shadowed Konan for a while. She never spoke to me, and only her occasional glances would confirm that she knew I was there. It wasn't long before more people appeared, and all of them wore the same cloak as she did. By the time they came along, though, I was already trailing close enough behind her to resemble a lost dog.

After that, the idea was somehow purposed to allow me to run missions for the group Konan belonged to. I would go out for reconnaissance, defend bases, infiltrate villages. Overall, the members let me be and I was about as noticeable as a shadow on the wall. I remember thinking the darkness was nearly tangible in Akatsuki, and that it produced a double effect: I could hide in the gloom, but it suffocated as much as protected me. It reminded me of the dark times in my personal abyss, and I would sometimes wake up in a cold sweat.

This perpetual battle of deadly comfort lasted two years until I was given the opportunity to have an identity again. No longer was I an underling in Akatsuki—I was slightly more important, though still nowhere near being a member. There was one other person who was similar to me at that time. Another girl who had wormed her way into the organization like I had. Naturally, the Leader marked us as partners. The girl's name was Kiminari.

She was volatile and spoiled and bright. Her wit was quick but made her infallibly more irritating because of it. She was talented, rather pretty, and an excellent kunoichi. Under different circumstances, I imagine many people would have found her charming and darling. Her acting skills were marvelous and made you _want _to believe she was kind. She may have even _been _kind, but I never would have known.

You see, Kiminari despised me because we inverses of one another.

I was subtle where she was flamboyant. I could flee from battle in times where she would prefer to die trying. She could childishly throw caution to the wind without bothering to watch where it landed behind her.

Most importantly I could murder in lieu of her mercy, because I was a better weapon than she was. I was better.

The woman was not a shinobi in my sense of the word.

But she was my partner.

Two years have passed since then.

The short skirmish with Jiraiya left me drained, and I made my way back to her on an evening where even the stars refused to cast their light on me. The resemblance between the present and past seemed staggering. Once again, I was returning to Akatsuki, and with it came the darkness of the world.

My knees buckled slightly from exhaustion as I thought that, but I plowed forward regardless.

It wasn't long before I felt concrete beneath my feet and knew I'd reached my destination. In front of me stood the flimsy door frame to a shabby inn. Inside the light shown, indicating that my partner was still awake. I took a deep breath to steady myself. My mouth was dry as I reached for the handle, and with a conscious effort I threw myself across the threshold with the sole purpose of entering.

"Good evening," I called.

Her reply was immediate. "Where the _hell _have you been?"

I braced myself against the accusing tone, trying not to let the falter in my step show as I stepped into the room. It was hard to beat down the urge to chuck something at this woman. After all, the door hadn't even closed behind me and already she had started the interrogation! I looked toward my colleague, a woman with deep purple-ish hair, most of which was now thrown back in a quick pony tail save a few rebellious strands, and then turned away again. She was a sealing expert. It wasn't surprising that laid before her on a small table sat a new scroll, her neat handwriting delicately covering the page. I surmised that I'd interrupted her studies and it was the inconvenience which had set her in a foul mood.

"Well?" she pushed. "Where were you?"

I shot her my best curl-up-and-die scowl as a response, and she hardly bothered to acknowledge my effort.

"Fine. You're business, I get it."

She plopped back onto the pillow she'd been sitting on and made it a point to ignore me. I made my way across the room, grudgingly noticing the subtle changes she'd made to it. From literally nowhere she'd pulled out that wooden short table and placed it in the center of our shared room. This was apparently a new arrangement and she'd conveniently forgotten to ask my approval. I contained a sigh.

After being with her for so long, I'd learned of her obsession with collecting furniture when she got bored. Normally it wasn't a problem, but if I took my time or left her alone just a little too long while on a mission, this is what I'd find. Our rooms filled up rather quickly, and then when it came time to move on to another place, packing was a problem. I wasn't sure how, exactly, she expected to move this new table. All her sealing scrolls were filled with weapons, food, other furniture, and things we might actually need on the road. I could've carried the necessities myself if I were the only one who needed them, but I had _her _to look after.

I would sooner have rid myself of her, though. Without hesitation. The little privacy we shared between us was deplorable but non-negotiable: it was the Leader who'd made the arrangements for our partnership. Admittedly, he did it to save money and I could see the logic, but rooming with this woman had become my greatest complaint recently. Due to Akatsuki's unofficial rule, each team either shared one hotel room while traveling or both members slept outside. Those were the only two options, and neither of us felt like sleeping outside all the time—even if it meant we had to put up with the close proximity.

"Rika, darling~?" she called from her area. "Where is your uniform?"

I froze, cursing silently at myself. I'd forgotten to put on the Akatsuki cloak after running away from Jiraiya.

"Give it a break, Kiminari," I snapped at her to keep my voice from wavering. "Today is seriously a bad day to piss me off."

And that wasn't a lie: I felt terrible. It had taken me all day to trek back to the room Kiminari and I had reserved, mostly because I was nearly out of chakra and could no longer summon a bird strong enough to carry me. My whole body was already aching, and I wanted to sleep. I wanted to sleep so badly, but I couldn't sleep if Kiminari was around because she wanted to (and could very well) murder me if I let my guard down. She'd tried before on several different occasions, and I'd tried the same; however, we'd both obviously failed since we were still unhappily together. For my own sake I hoped she wouldn't notice my fatigue and start a brawl. All I had to do was cross the room and—

"Oooooh!"

—damnit.

She was suddenly interested, her torso turned around and her full attention set on me as though I were some ghastly freak show. I instantly regretted drawing attention to myself. What was wrong? Sure I was exhausted, but there was no reason to _gasp _at my condition… was there?

"You look worse than usual today!" She bellowed callously before my glare made her backtrack. "Not that you're not an okay looking girl, Rika. It's just,"—her hands kneaded miserably through the air as she tried to find the right words—"Well, you look a little pale?"

I rolled my eyes as my hand closed around the bathroom doorknob, hand trembling slightly.

"Thanks for the update," I sneered.

The door was closed and locked in a second. Then, in the relative safety away from Kiminari, I stopped holding back and fell to the ground in pain. It was a slight surprise when my face hit smooth carpet instead of the usual hard tile of the bathroom floor and I was, for once, grateful for Kiminari's obsession; she'd bought some fluffy rug this time, and the rug was better cushioning than the floor any day.

However, the little luxury of the rug didn't occupy my attention long. A twinge of fire burned down my hands and I curled in on myself, cradling them as gently as possible. Damndid they _hurt _today. What had I done to cause this episode? Was it because of the jutsu I'd used to escape Jiraiya?

It was a possibility… Summoning more than a few birds at once wasn't, after all, necessarily the easiest thing to do; it'd taken me years to perfect that farce and build up enough stamina to perform it.

Technically speaking, it was physically impossible for me to summon more than about five prestigious birds at once if I had contracts with them. But if I bypassed those larger and more powerful birds, I could summon around twenty weak ones—the kind that could track targets (like the ones I'd used on Naruto yesterday) and that could circle around an opponent to intimidate them (like I'd had them do to Jiraiya). Twenty birds. That's all it took, and that's all that had been present yesterday. But to a regular bystander, they probably blocked out the sun after I'd placed a genjutsu on them.

It was a rather complicated jutsu, but when used properly it could make twenty measly birds appear to be an entire army. Most people never realized that they had the same birds flying about them, and that each one was simply being reflected multiple times at different sizes and at different areas. Summoned birds looked extremely similar to one another if you weren't contracted with the species. Only I could see through that deception, and so the trick was flawless.

Wait. That was a lie—it was only _nearly _flawless.

Nearly flawless because there were definitely a handful of people who could see through it, and the ploy still had serious downfalls. One being a consequence that my body constantly served to remind me of: chakra. I could feel the drain weakening me. My limbs felt oddly disconnected and ghostly. For a moment I thought I should have held back a little more, but even if I'd summoned less experienced birds that required less chakra, it would have taken another day to replenish all that I'd lost. However, there was one other dilemma I had yet to consider: my pain killers. Were they not working?

My eyes found the hotel's open medicine cabinet and locked onto the pill-filled plastic cylinder resting in it. _No, _I thought. _They should still be good for another five months. _It couldn't be the pills. It couldn't. I'd been careful to keep the dosage in check while I was gone. However, my body didn't seem to care about precautions and logic.

Another spasm raced up my hands. I gasped quietly before biting my inner cheek. I lay very still, waiting. The seconds ticked by slowly, and soon counting Kiminari's rug fibers became a means of entertainment. I had nearly reached 1,978 when I was interrupted by three quick raps on the door.

"Hey, Rika? You gonna be in there much longer?"

Kiminari was standing just outside the door. I jumped at the sound, the movement exacerbating whatever tenderness I could still feel in my arms and my mood, and I mentally cursed her for startling me, even if it was my fault for not noticing her sooner.

I grit my teeth instead of instinctively threatening her. "Go away."

She guffawed and there was a ruffle of fabric as she crossed her arms. "I know you're incapable of being respectful—even to your elder—for longer than a few seconds, but could you please come out?" she growled. "I need to wash my face."

Her foot tapped as she waited; I didn't answer. I may have been three years her junior, but Kiminari was still only 20 years old. Besides, I was _her_ senior when it came to Akatsuki. I'd been dedicated to them for four years, whereas she'd merely stalked around them for two. And yet last week, on the same day I was finally accepted, she was too. Therefore, during the ceremony where the Leader crushed my success by informing me I was permanently being partnered with Kiminari, I had barely managed to hold back my disgust.

She hadn't. Although she wasn't fool enough to openly object in front of the Boss, I saw her shiver as though she'd just touched something particularly nasty. It made me want to punch her teeth out of her dainty little skull.

In my opinion, the entire affair was a waste of time. Even now we weren't considered official members: we were backups in case someone else got sacked. Neither of us was very important to the team, really, and it wasn't much of a problem if we were killed—but the only reason I hadn't killed Kiminari yet was because the Leader told me not to.

He'd been very… adamant when he'd explained, and I didn't feel like testing his patience. Maybe Kiminari didn't either, and that was the only reason _she _hadn't killed _me. _But even _that _rule confused me. If we were easy to replace and not even official members, why did the Leader care whether or not we killed one another? If we were insignificant, why bother enforcing the rule? Was it simply to keep numbers up? Did he see us as promising candidates if some group members seriously needed replacements?

"Rika, open the door. Now."

"Find another sink or go wash your face in a puddle—that's what other hogs do," I suggested rather boldly.

Kiminari didn't care for that response very much. Quite a few unflattering insults passed her lips after that and there was some door banging. I could have told her I wasn't listening when she started threatening to drown me in the nearest puddle she found, but that wouldn't do much to shut her up. So I quietly decided to tune her out.

Eventually she grew bored with the death threats and moved away. I didn't complain since her ideas for torture got pretty dull toward the end, but the inflections in her voice had been something to keep my mind off the pain. There was nothing better to do, so I listened for her movements for a while thereafter. First she went to the table and paced for a few minutes.

Then she sat there, probably fuming silently and planning revenge on me for about ten more minutes until finally, and with an exasperated sigh, I heard her go to the small kitchen's sink, turn on the faucet, and start splashing about. Then her footsteps came closer to the bathroom, stopped, and turned around. An hour later she turned off the lights, quietly made her bed with a soft rustle of blankets, and everything fell to silence. I stayed in the bathroom, trying to concentrate on anything and everything but my arms. It got a little boring, but I learned something in that time: rug fibers weren't fun to count—and neither were ceiling tiles.

Hours later, I woke up without recalling ever having fallen asleep. My back was sore since I'd somehow managed to wedge myself between the toilet and the counter, but I welcomed the soreness over the pain I'd experienced yesterday. It was almost pleasant to enjoy _normal _body problems.

Using the sink for support, I hitched myself up and stared at my reflection in the mirror. I half expected myself to look as terrible as Kiminari had made me seem yesterday, but after looking in the mirror I knew she'd overreacted about my appearance… Although I did wash my face, just in case. Surely I wasn't a model, but I didn't look much worse than usual. Light skin, light brown eyes and unkempt hair, bangs that were getting maddeningly close to my eyes. Same old stuff.

I stood there for a moment more, studying those brown eyes without really thinking about it. There were dark circles blossoming beneath them, slowly but surely creeping their way to the surface like bruises. I tousled my bangs, trying to arrange them so they were out of my eyes or slightly more manageable. When the endeavor proved futile, I vowed to cut them as soon as I had time. For now, though, I pulled out my forehead protector and wrapped it around the base of my head, then swung the metal plate upward, placing it to be worn like a bandana. It held up the bangs well enough.

My gaze flashed to the bathroom's clock. _Six fourty-five, _I thought to myself_, Time for medicine. _

With a bit of effort, I found and unscrewed the pill bottle that held my medication and shoved two of the damn things in my mouth. They scrapped down rather unpleasantly since I'd taken them dry, so in the end I resorted to drinking tap water to coax them the rest of the way. The little tremors in my hands eventually receded, and I decided to take my chances with Kiminari.

With tentative steps, I made my way over the bathroom's threshold and into the line of fire, glancing warily around the room for my partner. She was sitting at the table, just as she had been yesterday.

"Look who finally decided to come out," she jeered as soon as she caught my eye.

I ignored her and came to sit at the table as well, absentmindedly picking at the surface grains which hadn't been sanded away. She was immune to my silence by now and didn't wait for my retort before saying, "We need to get out of here tomorrow."

I agreed immediately and full heartedly. The incident with Jiraiya was still fresh in my mind, spurring me to hurry and move on. It would be better to put distance between us; it would be safer. I was just lucky Kiminari was proposing the idea, because she probably would've protested if I'd asked us to move.

For an absurd moment, I tried faking a smile and then I remembered smiling was unnecessary. It didn't matter whether or not Kiminari liked me. Smiling for her was useless and it benefited me in no way. It wasn't like I was on a mission and had to keep a façade.

But she caught my blunder and looked at me curiously. "You don't have any complaints?"

I shook my head.

She was still wearing that curious look when she suddenly reached over the table and tried to touch my forehead. I recoiled as if she was a striking snake, but she was insistent.

"What do you think you're—ugh!—_doing?" _I demanded, still swatting away her attempts to touch my face. She paled and sat extremely still, as if hoping to mollify my anger by remaining in one position. For one crazy moment she reminded me of a child being scolded; I quickly dismissed the thought. Kiminari was an S-ranked killer, same as all members of Akatsuki—same as me.

"Nothing, nevermind. I just…." She seemed on the verge of speaking and then changed her mind. Her smile was a little strained when she got up and turned away stiffly. "I was just testing your reflexes is all."

I watched her carefully as she walked away, and when it seemed she would stick with that excuse, we both abandoned the conversation. After preparing and eating our own breakfasts, we silently set to packing up the belongings we had. Kiminari gathered her scrolls and performed the necessary jutsu to seal the majority of her shopping goods. The table alone stayed planted in the center of the room and remained the one piece of furniture she hadn't sealed away. I ignored its continued presence, trusting that she would decide what to do with it in the end. After all, she had been the one to buy it.

So while she gathered her frivolous articles, I stowed away the majority of our medical supplies and hygienic products. Only the absolute essentials stayed where they were, all of them aligned in a row so we could snatch them up quickly tomorrow morning. I counted out my required pills and placed them aside before putting the container away. It would rest alongside the painkillers and antibiotics and disinfectants for a while—or until we found another place to stay.

Unfortunately, our destinations weren't usually planned out. Kiminari and I simply refused to collaborate with one another, so agreeing on a location was virtually impossible. This time didn't seem to differ much from our usual routine except that afternoon packing was tense; I kept glancing at Kiminari while we gathered our belongings. Perhaps my paranoia made me weary of her, or perhaps it was the left over unease from meeting Jiraiya, or maybe I expected her to suddenly poof out of existence or explode… But I felt the need to keep an eye on her. It was an urge. If I realized my back was to my partner, I'd turn around expecting a blade at my throat. Was she acting different? Had she ever tried smiling at me before, even if it was as shaky as the one she'd given this morning? I couldn't remember.

If I'm being completely honest, we were pretty dysfunctional together, if not completely worthless as a team. Granted, I suppose the other teams usually consisted of partners who could care less about one another too… And that was mostly because it was difficult to trust another person when the bonds with them were formed on little more than threats.

My time in the ANBU had taught me that quickly, and yet here I was making the same mistakes with Kiminari.

As the thought came, my shoulders sagged slightly. What if Kiminari really did deserve a shot at proving herself to me and I had been too stubborn to let her?

All that day, I did my best not to get on her nerves too terribly. If she spoke to me, I attempted to answer with slightly more enthusiasm than her requests deserved. I held a single conversation with her for more than ten minutes without either of us threatening one another. It was like a record for our partnership. At one point, she even offered to help me repackage a box overloaded with her various collections. With a little difficulty, I accepted her offer and refused the urge to ask why she'd bothered unpacking them again in the first place.

The day trudged on, the sun descended closer to the land, and our room gradually grew empty. We had managed to work up a sweat during the process of lining objects precisely on top of Kiminari's scrolls so she could seal them up, and so we both washed up a little before deciding the work was done.

Later on I volunteered to prepare a stew for dinner with the perishable food Kiminari had bought while I was gone. I measured out the water I would need and poured it into the steamer. While waiting for the water to boil, I involuntarily looked back at Kiminari, my eyebrows drawing together. We needed to rest for tomorrow and take things easy, so our physical work for the evening was complete.

Following that idea, she was scribbling in her scrolls, practicing new seals with a small and concentrated frown. And I wasn't exactly straining myself with a meticulous cooking strategy. It was a strange day; it was almost a peaceful day. I kept imagining a nagging sensation that forced me to look around every once in a while, but she never looked up from her work, so I would begin the stew again, cutting vegetables and spices carefully. It wasn't difficult, really. The vegetables cut nicely and easily. Everything was fine.

Until my hand convulsed and I gouged myself.

So unexpected was this turn of events that I stood still for a moment, staring at the self-inflicted wound, shell shocked and confused beyond belief. How had that happened? Why had that happened?!

My heart skipped a beat before I snapped back to attention, and oddly enough, the first thing I panicked over was the possibility of my blood contaminating the stew. Quickly, I pulled my red hand away from the cutting board before the stabbing pain hit me. Once my brain registered the biting awareness, I hissed under my breath, set the knife down, raised my hand to clot the wound, and looked for something to soak up the blood. However, all the towels had already been packed… And so had the medical supplies.

_Great, _I thought, _just great._

I tore off a bit of my sleeve and wrapped it around my hand. Tomorrow morning I would just have to pull a different shirt out of my sack or otherwise wear my sleeping shirt the next day.

Kiminari's head snapped up as I was wrapping the wound, and she was standing next to me in a second.

"I'll go get the medical scrool," she said as the blood started soaking through my makeshift gauze. A few hand signs later and she was plopping me down at the table, fussing over the bandage and getting out the disinfectant.

"Honestly, Rika, what would you do without me?"

_Live easy, _I thought bitterly. But my verbal reply was something more like, "I really don't know." The sarcasm wasn't even noticeable.

After that, Kiminari took over preparing the stew, calling me incompetent. But when she realized she had no idea what I had been making, she asked me to help by giving her directions. I'd be lying if I said working with her was easy. She kept cutting things wrong, and when I pointed this out she would ask,

"Which of us managed to cut themselves?"

I wouldn't answer.

We both got frustrated and snappy and she brandished the knife at me several times ("You want me to show you how well I can cut?!"). It appeared the cooperation we'd managed previously was wilting away. But then, halfway through the cooking process, we finally came to an agreement: she would listen if I wouldn't annoy her with commentary.

"Fine," I said.

"Fine," Kiminari growled.

Surprisingly, the pact actually held strong until the stew was finished. I was threatened only one more time and she genuinely tried to listen, which I assumed was a feat for her because, despite all her quirky mannerisms, I knew Kiminari was independent and proud of the trait. In her eyes, listening to my instructions was an admission of reliance which genuinely hurt her—I said she could omit whatever ingredients she wanted because she was in charge. That brightened her up, but not by much. She hardly threw out anything either, and I had the strangest feeling she approved of the recipe.

About fifteen minutes later she mutilated the last of the celery, scraped it into the pot, and we left it to stew. I half feared that she would try conversing with me again, so I stood as far away as possible. Thankfully, she returned to her scrolls as if nothing had happened, her brow furrowing again as she stared at the calligraphy written in front of her. Thirty minutes passed in that manner. It seemed an eternity before the stew was done, and I practically sprinted to the pot in order to ladle out our servings, practically tripping over myself so I could have something to do. I'd already set the table one-handed and with minimal difficulty.

Dinner was a quiet ceremony since we normally only ate as a means of keeping up energy and not as a chance to enjoy the meal. I looked down at the stew, picking at random bits of rice and vegetable. What had possessed me to choose this recipe? It diverted from our normal plates. My partner, however, wasn't complaining. She slurped contentedly from across the table.

"You know, this isn't bad," she said, brandishing a naruto swirl in her chopsticks.

I caught Kiminari's gaze and stared for a long time, trying to return from the thoughts she'd interrupted. I'd been stranded in the past again, captured in a memory, and her face wasn't the one I was searching for when I looked across the table.

"The stew," she returned slowly, as if I hadn't understood before, "it tastes pretty good."

The silence grew longer between us as I continued to stare at her, and finally she gave up on conversation. It was then that I picked up my bowl in an attempt to eat, placed it back down with an empty feeling in the pit of my stomach, and said,

"My mom used to make this for us: for my brother, my sister, my father and me."

Kiminari nearly choked on a rather large portion of food (she'd been hurrying so she could get up and get away from me sooner) and started beating at her chest. I laughed at the sight and earned a magnificent glare, though her eyes glinted with something else too. It was the first time I'd told her anything about myself or my past before Akatsuki. Her coughing fit subsided and she took up the bone I'd thrown.

"I never knew you had siblings. Or parents," Kiminari offered, though her voice was still a little breathy after choking on that last bit of stew.

"I guess you wouldn't be aware of my family, but I can honestly tell you that I did have one at one time, believe it or not." For the sake of conversation, I even added whimsically, "Were you under the impression I'd hatched from an egg like some abandoned bird?"

Kiminari didn't pretend to laugh at my feeble joke; she stared at me evenly. I squirmed uncomfortably.

"Sometimes it seems that way," she mumbled. I didn't know what she meant by that, so I asked her.

"I don't mean anything by it, you're just weird. I guess I've never pictured you younger than what you are now," she said, gesturing at me. Then her brows kneaded together in concentration. She glanced me over once more and shook her head.

"No, I can't picture you as a child, actually. You're stuck like this—exactly like this in my head. But what about your family?"

" 'What about them?' " I echoed.

"Yes, what about them! You can't suddenly mention something like that without talking about it. What were they like, what were _you _like?" she stressed emphatically.

She was leaning forward, her hands on the table, the stew forgotten. I grimaced slightly and set my utensil down in front of me. It was easy for me to regret saying things in front of her, and I knew it, but I also badly wanted to lull Kiminari into a sense of calm. The future was still incredibly dark for me, and I didn't know what part she'd play in it.

"I don't know, Kiminari. They were normal," I said, struggling with the words, "I was normal. What else is there? Why is it important?"

"Because," she said, hitting the table with her fist, "it's just important."

"No, it's really not," I argued, logically counting up the reasons on my fingers. "One, we are in Akatsuki. Two, we are disconnected from them now. And three, fact two is _not_ going to change. We won't ever reconnect with them."

Her face was reddening and her eyes had an odd quality to them now which made them appear to burn. But as her eyes and feelings grew warmer, I felt colder. She was like a fire, burning bright, and I a cold stone: her fire wouldn't reach me if I could prevent it, and even if it did I would refuse to budge. Neither its warmth nor its light moved me, and it never would.

It was then I decided that I didn't care what part she played in my future; the sooner I rid myself of her the better. It was merely a matter of time and precision. Then I wouldn't need to worry about her, and I wouldn't have to keep pretending to be civilized around her.

"It doesn't matter anymore," I repeated, looking her straight in the eye as I said it.

"If it doesn't matter, then there's no reason to avoid the topic," she said.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, exasperated now. "I don't think of unchanging things," I explained.

"Then you neglect life," she shot back. "The only constant in life is change, so it is essentially unchanging. Now talk."

I grit my teeth. A smile was hitching itself onto her face and I wanted nothing more than to tear it off.

My eyes narrowed. "Okay, Kiminari. Why don't we talk about you? What were _your_ parents like? I'm so very curious to hear about your childhood," I said heatedly. To my relief, that made her smile disappear and forced her to look at me with level-headed severity. But that only lasted about a second.

Then she was smiling like a fool again.

"My parents?" she sighed dreamily.

"Yes," I deadpanned.

"Oh," she said, covering her mouth daintily with her hand as she smiled. "They were kind, loving, honest people. My mother ran a calligraphy studio and my father made fresh paper for her to use every week for her classes. Both of them married young and had incredibly high aspirations for the future—dreams about promoting a world of peace, no less," she said conversationally. Then, without changing her tone or expression, she added, "Of course, none of those aspirations came to fruition. They were murdered too soon for all that. And because our family had barely started growing when they were killed, I never had siblings, unlike you."

"Interesting," I allowed, though the information hardly surprised me. Kiminari rarely reacted to situations like someone with siblings would, and so I had already guessed she was an only child. And many of her morals lacked the guidance of much parenting, so her classification as an orphan made sense too.

Kiminari continued as if I hadn't spoken:

"If my parents had lived a while longer, they may have had another child… They often talked about things like that—choosing to marry, choosing to become parents, choosing to live happily." She trailed off a bit, recalling some past life which hardly belonged to her anymore. Her eyes were guarded, but there was the slightest hardening in them and suddenly her jaw clenched. Her daydream passed and she was looking at me again when she said,

"I know you dislike me, Rika. But you don't have to. That is purely your choice."

I held my gaze with her and nodded. "Yes, I know."

She closed her eyes in a pained way, as if I'd said the wrong thing.

"I didn't have parents for very long," she coaxed, as if giving me a hint, "but I think you did, Rika, and that's the reason you don't understand me completely."

"How so?" I asked.

"They protected you, and so you can't comprehend my pain. By giving you a good life, they made you blind to the fact that we don't have many choices in life. It's a simply concept, really, and it's one that my parents were able to teach me when they died."

With her chopstick, she unceremoniously speared through a vegetable and held it up to me. "You see, someone can come along and ruin all our plans, and suddenly our choices become irrelevant. My parents died because a ninja killed them. He never asked for their choice in the matter—he just did it. I was seven when I learned that there are no choices for us when the time comes. So we've got to make the best of what our situations give us."

She finished her little speech looking proud of herself and glanced across at me to gauge my reaction, which seemed to be lacking because her shoulders hunched a little. I didn't know what she expected of me. Certainly she was telling the truth about her parents, but I know she hadn't expected my consolation on the subject. As I sat, a small strand of her dark purple hair came loose and she replaced it with an impatient twitch of her hand.

"So," she tried. "Your folks are dead too… aren't they?"

Again, I simply stared at her without allowing any expression to come through as I finally realized why she'd brought up the topic. I put my guard up as the disgust I felt for her reared up again, churning like bile. _What naiveté,_ I thought. She was definitely an only child. She couldn't even properly barter for information.

I gave her no response to her question that night. I merely got up from the table without looking at her, picked up my bowl in the same matter, and emptied it. I knew beyond a doubt that Kiminari wasn't expecting consolation by sharing her past with me; she wanted to receive information about my past in exchange for her own. All that crap about doing the best with my situation and befriending her was a lie—she was trying to find my weakness, hoping it was buried within the ties I held with my family. She'd tried laying down a hefty amount to wager, and now she thought I was in debt. But I wasn't matching her offer.

The stew we'd made stayed in the trash, growing rank and spoiled as the hours in the night ran on.

I hadn't eaten anything.

The next day when we headed out, I noticed the bruise Zua had given me a few days ago was now green. If I applied pressure to it, the skin would protest slightly and turn yellowish, but otherwise I hardly noticed it. Kiminari, on the other hand, spotted it the second I took off the bandages, her eyes widening and her mouth forming a small 'o' as she circled closer to get a better look.

"Thanks for the space," I said when she was so close her head eclipsed my vision. She was holding my arm, leaning across me, poking daintily at my flesh. I resisted the urge to wince at her antics, and when she looked up at me, I expected her to move away or apologize. Kiminari did neither.

"What did you do to yourself?" she asked, her expression giving her the look of a confused owl.

I sighed and adjusted the bag on my shoulder to a more comfortable position. We'd been walking several hours, the hotel we'd stayed at the night before was already miles behind us, and the straps of luggage were cutting into my shoulders. Kiminari had her scrolls strapped on a belt around her waist while the larger ones sat on her back, easily accessible but out of the way.

"I got in a fight," I answered simply, shrugging off her hands as I did so.

"A fight?" she echoed, neither insulted nor surprised as I reclaimed my arm. "Why? Where?"

"You already asked that yesterday," I pointed out. "And if I'd wanted you to know, I would've answered last night."

She mulled that over for about half a second, allowing it to roll around in that thick skull of hers. She clucked her tongue and shrugged her shoulders with feigned disinterest.

"You're right," she conceded. "I did. My mistake."

Her strides grew significantly longer after that, and soon she was walking about three yards in front of me. It was then that she turned around, cupping her hands around her mouth like a microphone, and yelled out, "One might think you're being dishonest, though, with all the secrets you keep, Rika! And what with your traipsing around without your Akatsuki cloak, it would be easy to call you out as a traitor."

Red hot anger flashed through my chest. She was gutsy to threaten me so blatantly, and although I somewhat admired the trait, it really tried my patience. Luckily I was still recovering my chakra and had the sensibility to not attack her; however, the allure of shutting her up was nearly unbearable.

One day I would get her. One day.

But for now…

"I could say the same about you, you traitorous idiot! Didn't you insult our cloaks a few nights ago? Something about 'ugly' and 'stupid,' I believe?"

She hesitated a moment, mouth half open. "I-I was referring to—"

"To the organization that these cloaks represent, perhaps? You believe Akatsuki is 'stupid' and, in essence, an 'ugly' organization? We have colleagues who might care to disagree with you there. And Kisame's not much of a looker, granted, but I don't think he'd appreciate being called 'ug—"

"—Enough! You've made your point." Kiminari's face was flushed red with anger now; her hands were fisted at her sides. "Let's get going."

She turned in a huff and stampeded up the next hill as quickly as possible, distancing herself from me like some child throwing a tantrum. I shook my head, incredulous and wary.

The woman was certainly not a shinobi in my sense of the world.

But she was my partner.

**I've decided I despise my writing style. :P I think that's why I haven't updated in so long. Sorry, guys. Hopefully I'll get better as time goes on. Thanks for reading~**


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